Virginia, (which will he 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 he sepulchral monuments by the quantity of human remains embraced
in them.*
The mounds are variously shaped, circular, elliptical, and pyramidal, while
soma 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 hones 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 hears the name of Micoatl, or T h e p a th o f the dead,
obviously indicating at least one of the uses of those structures, which, in that
locality alone, are several hundred in number.! In Peru the mounds are called
Huacas, which, in the Quichua language, singnifies to weep, a designation not less
expressive than that of the Mexicans.!
Besides human remains, the mounds often contain the hones of the hear,
otter, heaver and other animals,§ together with stone hatchets and arrow heads,
vessels of various kinds, fragments of obsidian and mica, and, more rarely, implements
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 he no doubt, however, that the
mounds were also devoted to other purposes; 1 st, 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. \ Ruschenberger, Three Years in the Pacific, p. 400.
§ Archaeolog. Amer. I, p. 168. || Sibley, in Report, &c., 18Q6, p. SO.
I Cornelius, in Amer. Jour, of Science and Art, I, p. 324.