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ranguing the assembled people, or places of sacrifice ; and 

 where they are only from 20 to 25 feet high, they may be 

 considered as observatories erected to discover the move- 

 ments of a neighbouring enemy. (Arch. Amer. Vol. i. 

 p. 185, 189, 246, 210, 168, 178.) The great tumuli, from 

 80 to 100 feet high, are most frequently insulated, and some- 

 times seem to be of the same age as the fortifications to 

 which they are linked. The latter merit particular atten- 

 tion j I know no where any thing that resembles them, either 

 in South America, or the ancient continent. The regularity 

 of the polygon and circular forms, and the small works in- 

 tended to cover the doors of the building, are above all re- 

 markable. We know not whether they were inclosures of 

 property, walls of defence against enemies, (Relat. Histor. 

 Tom. i. 85), or intrenched camps, as in central Asia. The 

 custom of separating the different quarters of a town by 

 circumvallations, is observed alike in the ancient Tenoch- 

 leitian, and the Peruvian town of Chimu, the ruins of which 

 I examined, between Truxillo and the coast of the South 

 Sea. (Political Essay y Vol. ii. p. 8). The tumuli are less 

 characteristic constructions, and may have belonged to na- 

 tions who had no communication with one another ; they 

 cover both Americas, the north of Asia, and the whole east 

 of Europe ; and it is said, are still constructed by the Omaw- 

 haws of the river Plata. The skulls contained in the tumuli 

 of the United States, furnish means of recognizing almost 

 with certainty, to what degree the race of men by whom" they 

 were raised, differed from the Indians who now inhabit the 

 same countries. M. Mitchell believes that the skeletons of 

 the caverns of Kentucky and Tennesee " belong to the 

 Malays, who came by the Pacific Ocean to the western coast 

 of America, and were destroyed by the ancestors of the 

 present Indians, and who were of Tartar race (Mongul)." 

 With respect to the tumuli and the fortifications, the same 

 learned writer supposes, with Mr. De Witt Clinton, that 



