THE MOUND BUILDERS OF TENNESSEE. 63 
ditches were also found in various parts of the country. The 
most remarkable of the latter was at Pascha, west of the 
Mississippi. Here a large ditch, "wide enough for two 
canoes to pass abreast, without the paddles touching,” sur- 
rounded a walled town. It was cut nine miles longs com- 
municated with the Mississippi, supplied the uaiiie with 
fish, and afforded them the privileges of navigation. 
The natives formed artificial mounds for purposes of bur- 
ial, worship, habitation and defense. The houses of the 
chiefs, with but few exceptions, stood upon large and ele- 
vated artificial mounds. When the Indians of 1540 resolved 
to build a town, the site of which was usually selected upon 
low rich land, by the side of some stream, or in the neigh- 
borhood of a large never-failing spring, they first erected a 
mound from twenty to fifty feet high, round on the sides but 
flat on the top. The habitations of the chief and his family 
were erected upon the summit. At the foot of the eminence 
a square was marked out around which the principal men 
placed their houses, and around them the inferior classes 
erected their wigwams. Some of these mounds had stair- 
ways upon their sides, and were so steep as to be accessible 
only by the artificial way. They were thus rendered secure 
from the attacks of an Indian enemy.  Mounds were also 
erected over the chiefs after their death, whilst others were 
formed by the slow accumulation of the dead through ages. 
The aborigines, at the time of De Soto, worshipped the 
sun, and erected large temples, which were also receptacles 
of the bones of the dead. The natives worshipped the sun, 
and entertained great veneration for the moon and certain 
stars. When the Indian ambassadors crossed the Savannah 
to meet De Soto, they made three profound bows toward 
the East, intended for the sun; three toward the West for 
the moon, and three toward De Soto. Upon the eastern 
bank of the Mississippi all the Indians approached him with- 
out uttering a word, and went through precisely the same 
ceremony, making to DeSoto, however, three bows much 
