
| 
[ 
| 
j 
| 
CC RW MER EIER TAMUE TTE 

THE MOUND BUILDERS OF TENNESSEE. 71 
mound marked the site of an ancient temple of the sun, in 
which the aborigines kept the eternal fire. The sacrifices 
upon the altar appear, from the bones of the deer, the ant- 
lers, ete., to have been not human, but animal. 
That the aborigines of Tennessee were idolaters, is mani- 
fest from the stone and clay idols, which have been found in 
various portions of the State, some of which were found in 
caves, and others upon the summit of high mounds. 
It is worthy of notice that some of the idols have the fore- 
head flattened, making an exact line with the nose, and re- 
sembling in all respects the Toltec heads of Mexico, while 
others are represented with full round foreheads; and it is 
still further worthy of notice that the hair of the head of the 
idols is represented in a very different mode from that in 
which the nomadic tribes of North American Indians now 
wear it. In the female idols the hair is gathered into a knot 
or "waterfall" behind, while in the male idols it is bound 
into a cue behind, like the hair of the Chinese. These re- 
markable sculptures in hard sandstone, limestone and por- 
phyry, eorrespond in features and mode of hair dress with 
the inhabitants of Central America, at the time of the Span- 
ish conquest. 
Herera, in describing the inhabitants of Yucatan, Says: 
“They flatten their heails and foreheads, their ears were 
bored, with rings in them, their hair was long like women, 
and in tresses, with which they made a garland about the 
head, and a little tail hung behind.” 
The most important and interesting result in the entire 
series of investigations is the discovery of undoubted sym- 
bols of the Catholic religion in the stone graves and mounds 
of Tennessee. In a stone grave in a small mound within an 
extensive fortification on the banks of Big Harpeth River, 
two and a half miles from Franklin, on the plantation of 
‘General De Graffenried, four copper crosses were exhumed, 
resting upon the skull of an old Indian. The copper had 
stained the bones of the cranium of a deep green color. In 
