ABORIGINAL SACRED ENCLOSURES. 



It has elsewhere been observed, " that the structure, not less than the form and 

 position, of a large number of the aboriginal enclosures of the Mississippi valley, 

 render it certain that they were designed for other than defensive purposes." — 

 (^Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, p. 47 ) They are distinguished for 

 their regularity : most are circular, others are square or rectangular, and a few are 

 elliptical or octagonal. Sometimes these figures are combined in the same group. 

 While the defensive works for the most part occupy high hills and other command- 

 ing positions, and in their form correspond to the natural features of the ground 

 upon which they are built, the sacred enclosures almost invariably occur upon the 

 level river terraces, where the surface is least undulating. The ditch, in the few 

 instances where that feature is discovered, is, with rare exceptions, interior to the 

 embankment; and, in procuring the material comprising the latter, great care 

 seems to have been exercised by the builders to preserve the surface of the sur- 

 rounding plain smooth and, as far as practicable, unbroken. The further fact that 

 many of these regular works are commanded from neighboring eminences, not to 

 mention the absence of supplies of water, seems conclusively to establish, that 

 whatever may have been their secondary purposes, they were not primarily con- 

 nected with any military system. 



It has also been observed that these enclosures contain mounds, evidently of 

 sacred origin. Some of them correspond in form with the ancient pyramidal 

 temples of Mexico and Central America, and others cover altars upon which were 

 offered the sacrifices prescribed by the aboriginal ritual. 



Upon the basis of these facts, it is assumed that the enclosures of the West, 

 not manifestly defensive in their purposes, were in some way connected with the 

 superstitions of their builders ; an assumption supported by the well known fact 

 that the most imposing monuments of human labor and skill, in early times, were 

 those which were erected under the influence of religious zeal. 



Proceeding upon this assumption, we next inquire what relations these works 

 sustain to the sacred structures of the various aboriginal nations of this continent, 

 and to those erected by the primitive nations of the Old World, and to what 

 extent they may be regarded as indicating the religious beliefs and conceptions of 

 their builders ? 



TEMPLES OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



The temples of most of the North American Indian tribes were of the rudest 

 character, and distinguished only by their greater size from the ordinary huts of 



