218 CRANIA AMERICANA. 



Virginia, (which will be particularly noticed hereafter,) is also of gigantic size. 

 But the most curious mounds are those constructed into rude resemblances of 

 men and animals, which abound in Wisconsin territory; and these also are 

 proved to be sepulchral monuments by the quantity of human remains embraced 

 in themo* 



The mounds are variously shaped, circular, elliptical, and pyramidal, while 

 some of them are formed in parapets, like the pyramid of Medoun, in Egypt. 



The uses of these structures were various, as will appear from the position 

 they occupy, and the articles contained in them ; nor can there be a question that 

 they were mainly designed for receptacles for the dead. In almost all instances 

 in which they have been carefully examined, human bones have been found in 

 them, and sometimes many skeletons together, and regularly disposed. The 

 remarkable group of pyramids at Teotihuacan, north of the city of Mexico, is 

 situated on a plain that bears the name of Micoatl, or The path of the dead^ 

 obviously indicating at least one of the uses of those structures, which, in that 

 locality alone, are several hundred in number.f In Peru the mounds are called 

 Huacas^ w^hich, in the Quichua language, singnifies to weep^ a designation not less 

 expressive than that of the Mexicans.J 



Besides human remains, the mounds often contain the bones of the bear, 

 otter, beaver and other animals,^ together with stone hatchets and arrow heads, 

 vessels of various kinds, fragments of obsidian and mica, and, more rarely, imple- 

 ments of copper, and ornaments of ivory. It is also not unusual to find ashes, 

 cinders and burnt bones, resting on a platform of stones, showing that the body 

 had been first consumed by fire. There can be no doubt, however, that the 

 mounds were also devoted to other purposes; 1st, as observatories and fortifications 

 in time of war. Thus we are told that when the last remains of the Natchez 

 were pursued by the French, (A. D. 1728,) they threw up a mound on Red river, 

 in Louisiana, occupied it as a fortification, and defended it with the utmost bravery 

 until overcome by the superior tactics of their enemies.|| In like manner the 

 Cherokees, in their late war with the Creeks, surrounded the summit of the 

 Etowee mound with pickets, placed their families in the enclosure, and thus 

 defended themselves from the assaults of their enemies.^ 2d, As places of 



* Taylor, in Amer. Jour, of Science, XXXIV, p. 96, with diagrams. 



t Humboldt, Monuments, I, p. 91. J Ruschenberger, Three Years in the Pacific, p. 400. 



§ Archaeolog. Amer. I, p. 168. || Sibley, in Report, Sic, 1806, p. 80. 



IF Cornelius, in Amer. Jour, of Science and Art, I, p. 324. 



