220 THE GRAVE CREEK MOUND. 



for their number. The hunter could use but few weapons, 

 and must depend for success mainly on his strength and 

 skill ; whereas the pipe-seller, if he could dispose of a pipe 

 at all in the grave, might render his whole stock-in-trade 

 available. 



I have already mentioned the great number of objects 

 found in the Grave Creek Mound, which was undoubtedly 

 sepulchral, and in which one of the skeletons was accom- 

 panied by seventeen hundred bone beads, five hundred sea- 

 shells, and one hundred and fifty pieces of mica, besides 

 other objects. Many flakes, arrow-heads, etc., have been at 

 times found in tumuli, so that the mere number of objects 

 seems no argument against the sepulchral nature of these 

 so-called " sacrificial mounds/' 



If, therefore, " the accumulated carbonaceous matter, like 

 that formed by the ashes of leaves or grass, " which suggests 

 to Professor "Wilson " the graceful offerings of the first-fruits 

 of the earth, so consonant to the milder forms of ancient 

 sacrifice instituted in recognition of the Lord of the Har- 

 vest/' seems to me only the framework of the house, or the 

 material of the funeral pyre ; on the other hand, I avoid 

 the conclusion to which he is driven, that on " the altars of 

 the mound-builders, human sacrifices were made ; and that 

 within their sacred enclosures were practised rites not less 

 hideous than those which characterised the worship which 

 the ferocious Aztecs are affirmed to have regarded as most 

 acceptable to their sanguinary gods." 



Temple Mounds. 



The class of mounds, called by 1 Messrs. Squier and Davis 

 " Temple Mounds," " are pyramidal structures, truncated, 

 and generally having graded avenues to their tops. In some 

 instances they are terraced, or have successive stages. But 

 whatever their form, whether round, oval, octangular, square, 



