1 HE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE AZTECS. 667 



^^ * In a word, we .do not concur in the opinion, so often expressed, that 

 the mound-builders were a race distinct from and superior in art, government, 

 and religion, to the Soiithern Indians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries." 

 In a very able paper on the " Ancient Copper Mines of Isle Royale," by Prof. 

 N. H. Winchell, in the Popular Science Monthly of last September, he forcibly 

 says: "If we inquire further what relation the mound-builders bore to the 

 Aborigines found here by Columbus, we shall be compelled to admit, from the 

 evidence, that the Aborigines themselves were the mound-builders and ancient 

 miners. * >i< >!< It is poor philosophy and poor science that resorts to 

 hypothetical causes when those already known are sufficient to produce the 

 known effect. The Indian is a known adequate cause. The assignment of the 

 mounds to any other dynasty was born of that common reverence for the past 

 and for the unexplainable, which not only unconsciously augments the actual, 

 but revolts at the reduction of their works to the level of the red man." 



To this sentiment of veneration for the past and common tendency to exag- 

 gerate the marvelous we owe the entire fabric of an imaginary semi-civilized race 

 and mythical empire, gorgeous in semi-barbaric splendor and fascinating in wild 

 mterest as an oriental tale. It has, however, had its day and is rapidly fading' 

 away before the iconoclasm of research and common sense. 



Virginia, Cass Co., III., January 23, 1882. 



THE MOUND-BUILDERS AND THE AZTECS. 



Writing to the Chicago Times from New Mexico, Mr. S. B. Evans states 

 that on the highest point of the great Potrero de las Vacas are some of the most 

 remarkable prehistoric relics that have been discovered in New Mexico, being no 

 less than the gods sculptured in stone that were worshiped by the ancients. 

 These are statues of mountain lions, carved from a volcanic rock in situ that forms 

 the cap of the potrero. The images are inclosed in a rude and almost circular 

 stone wall, in a space fifty feet in circumference, three feet in height, with an en- 

 trance projected eighteen feet toward the southeast, three feet wide. The lions 

 face directly toward the east, are two in number, separated by a space of twelve 

 inches, and are each six feet in length, and represent a puma or mountain lion in 

 the act of crouching for a spring. The heads of these statues are almost entirely 

 destroyed, showing plainly the marks of the pious hammer that sought their over- 

 throw. The legs, body, and tails of the animals are better preserved, and con- 

 stitute the remains of the most remarkable stone images set up for pagan worship 

 in the territory of the United States. To these gods the Cochiti Indians of the 

 present day pay homage. 



In the courtyard of the national museum in Mexico are carved images, 

 in stone, of similar animals. Some of them are well preserved, while others bear 

 the marks of Spanish defacement. The mountain lion was a sacred animal among 



