Mound-Builders | Page 5

part of Grave Creek mound. According to Schoolcraft's
analysis, communicated to the American Ethnological Society, "Of the
22 alphabetic characters, 4 correspond with the ancient Greek, 4 with
the Etruscan, 5 with the old Northern runes, 6 with the ancient Gaelic, 7
with the old Erse, 10 with the Phoenician, 14 with the old British," and
he also adds that equivalents may be found in the old Hebrew. It is, as
some writers have described it, an exceedingly accommodating
inscription. The following readings have been given:--
By M. Levy Bing: "What thou sayest, thou dost impose it, thou shinest
in thy impetuous clan, and rapid chamois." By M. Maurice Schwab
(1857): "The chief of emigration who reached these places, has fixed
these statutes forever." By M. Oppert: "The grave of one who was
assassinated here. May God, to revenge him, strike his murderer,
cutting off the hand of his existence." We can only say of these
readings what a Hebrew Rabbi said to an indolent student, who in
reading a verse in the Psalms in the original, gave the translation of the
next verse, "Gentlemen, that is a very free translation." Besides this,
other readings have been given, all of which have the advantage that
few can contradict them.
In the Scioto valley, where there are many very interesting remains of
the Mound-builders, there are many burial mounds which have lately
been opened. In many of these, the casts of unhewn logs are still visible,
showing that the dead were placed in a rude vault, which was
afterwards covered by soil. One skeleton was found to have round the
neck several hundred beads, made mostly of marine shells, others made
of the tusks of animals and a few laminæ of mica. In the same mound

from which this skeleton was taken, the vault gave strong evidence of
its having been set on fire during the burial ceremony,--the large
quantity of charcoal proving that it was suddenly quenched by the fresh
soil heaped upon it.
If these Mound-builders were Sun-worshippers, as may safely be
concluded from tablets and from rock markings, as well as from the
fact of their sacred enclosures mostly looking towards the east, where
the early rays would fall upon the altar, we may easily account for the
fire having a share In the burial ceremony. Some have concluded that
the blazing fire signified "life," and that the sudden quenching signified
"death."
Let it not be thought, however, that there are no burying places but
these few mounds. I believe the mounds of a burial character were only
for persons of distinction, while in reality there are thousands of ancient
cemeteries of vast extent, where multitudes have received common
burial. The spring freshets yearly uncover many of these, exposing not
only their bones, but many ornaments and implements that were used
by this wonderful people, and which were deposited beside them when
consigned to the silent tomb.
Symbolic Mounds.--There can be no mistake in affirming that the
strange mounds, so prevalent in Wisconsin, and frequently found in
other States, were the result of intention rather than accident. These are
sometimes called "Effigy Mounds." In Wisconsin, even implements, as
well as animals, are symbolized. The beaver, the tortoise, the elephant,
the serpent, the alligator seem to be their favorite animals, whose
images they have endeavored to perpetuate in mounds, of course on a
large scale. In Adams county, Ohio, on a steep bluff, 150 feet above the
level of Brush Creek, may be seen a huge serpent.
It is called the "Serpent Mound." The head of the serpent lies towards
the point of the spur, and then like the serpent, its body winds
gracefully back for 700 feet, the tail curved into a triple coil. From this
and other evidences lately collected, we may assume that the serpent
was among the sacred animals. Between the jaws of this serpent there is
a stone mound, bearing marks of long use as an altar. The body, which

is a mere winding wall, is, on an average, five feet in height, and
thirty-feet broad at the base near the centre. Doubtless this wall was
much higher when first made, and owing to the rains of centuries it has
become lower and broader.
Another mound, the shape and proportion of an alligator, may be seen
in Licking county, Ohio, about one mile from Granville. This is also on
a spur of land near the Licking River. Its length is 250 feet and height
about four feet. Its whole outline is strictly conformable to the alligator
with which animal they must have been familiar along the Mississippi,
where they could easily journey by boat. Rather than transport the
animal from the south, they doubtless erected this representation of
what they must have held sacred.
In the