“father,” said ed one evening, as he came in from a short hunting trip, “were there ever any armies encamped here, or battles fought in this part of the country?”
“no, son,” replied mr. allen, “not that history gives account of. there may have been some fighting between the indian tribes and the voyageurs who accompanied the jesuit fathers as they explored this land, in the early days of settlement of our country, but nothing like armies or battles have been known here.”
“well, i found some old fortifications, or what looked like them, today. i had started up a deer near the round slough, and found that it took to a trail leading almost due west. about a mile from the slough i came to what evidently had been an old bed of the river, where sometime in the long past it had made a big bend, up near the high sand knolls. now it was entirely dry, and i ran down into the old bed and across, and clambered up the west bank. it was there i found the earthworks. at first, where i ran across it, i thought it was a ridge of dirt some big flood had left upon the bank, but as i followed it along for several rods i came to the conclusion that it must
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have been the work of men. it was of uniform height and size, and followed the curve of the river. soon i came to a large mound, some twelve feet across, just where the bend in the river had come, and saw that another embankment, like the one upon which i was walking, stretched out from this central mound on the other side.
“it was for all the world as though some army had cast up earthworks at this bend of the river as a protection from an enemy coming either up or down the river.
“i was after that deer, so i did not wait to examine the old fort more closely. my trail led northward from there, and when i had gone about two miles, reaching that big hill we have so often seen in the distance, i had my second surprise. i was approaching the hill from the west, as i had lost track of the deer i had been following, and had turned for home. on that side the hill was so nearly straight up and down that a fellow would have a hard time in getting to the top. i thought i might as well see the other side of the hill; perhaps i might find a place there where i could climb up and look over the country. sure enough, there was a place where i could clamber to the top. this, the east side, was covered with timber, oak and basswood being mixed with the pine trees. as i looked up at the top the hill took on the funniest appearance; something like a big squat bottle with a rim around its mouth and a cork stuck in.
“i scrambled up. about two-thirds from the bottom
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i came to the rim of the bottle—the obstruction, whatever it was. with considerable difficulty i got up and over. it was plainly another case of fortifying—this time a hill instead of a river. the earth had been scraped away to the solid sandstone rock beneath, and brought forward into a ridge clear across the face of the hill. a thousand soldiers would have been safe behind that embankment on that side of the hill, from even the missiles of a modern army.”
“well, son,” replied mr. allen, “your finds are certainly interesting. they are undoubtedly the work of the moundbuilders. we must examine them some day, and perhaps may find something that will tell us of their story.”
“but, father,” asked rob, “who were the moundbuilders? and when did they live here? and who was it that was after them?”
“you have asked some hard questions, my boy. the scientists have guessed and guessed again. the earthworks they reared are really all we know about them. the indians have no traditions concerning them.”
“but, father,” persisted ed, “what became of them? did they kill each other off, or did they all die of some great epidemic?”
“as i said, son, these are questions which can only receive conjectures for answer. it may be that they were the descendants of some roving tribe that came over from asia by the way of the behring strait, after the lord scattered the people abroad from the
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plains of shinar. they may have continued their migrations southward before some later horde from the old world, and become the ancestors of the cliff-dwellers of arizona, or the toltecs and aztecs of mexico and yucatan.
“however, it is evident that the moundbuilders were in possession of a much less degree of civilization than the prehistoric ancestors of the south mexicans, for the moundbuilders have left nothing but their earthworks, while the ruined cities and temples of the ancient ancestors of the toltecs and aztecs show a civilization that must have rivalled that of old egypt, or even famous babylon itself.”
“is it about the moundbuilders you are speaking, mr. allen?” enquired dauphin thompson, who had just come in. “if you can spare the time some day i would like to take you to what seems to have been a town laid out by those old fellows. it is about four miles south, and i suppose half way between the necedah and the wisconsin rivers. i came across it last fall when hunting our cattle that had strayed over on that side of the river. i confess that the strangeness of it—like some great graveyard of giants, made me feel a little creepy, in the twilight. i did pluck up courage, though, to ride my pony to the top of what appeared to be the large central mound and look about.
“in the fading light that filtered through the trees i could not see well nor very far, but the mounds seemed to extend for several rods each way. they were laid off in regular lines, north and south, and east and
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west in what seemed to be a perfect square. there must have been fifty or perhaps more, of the mounds. they were not all of the same size, although they may have once been—save the mound which i had ridden upon; that was as large as three or four of the others. i asked my young menominee friend, kalichigoogah, about them once, but he looked scared and wouldn’t talk. all he would say was ‘no know, me. big medicine. white boy keep away.’”
“i understand,” said mr. allen, “the feeling our indians have for such objects and places. the mysterious to them is sacred. it is their religion to worship or give tribute and offerings to whatever they can not understand. i have read that from the earliest times certain tribes of indians have used these mounds as burial places for their own dead, so great a reverence had they for them.
“indeed, in some of the accounts given by the followers of la salle, or marquette, or hennepin, i do not recall which, it is stated that near the junction of the fox and wolf rivers in this state, they came upon several large mounds of this kind. these voyageurs, ever greedy of the gold supposed to be hidden away in the new world, dug into them. but instead of the coveted treasure, they found a few simple trinkets, and very many human bones. so they gave the place the name of buttes des mort, ‘mounds of the dead.’
“but, father, isn’t there anyone who can tell us about these people?” demanded ed. “i want to know
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why they made those breastworks on the bend of the old river, and why they went up to that hill and made a fort. who was it that was after them? and which side won? were they hunters? or did they plant crops? what kind of houses did they live in? and what did they look like?”
“my dear boy, if i could answer those questions correctly at this moment, i would suddenly find myself one of the famous men of the country. as i have said, this departed race has left but little to tell of its existence, but that little the scientists are taking, and by comparison and deduction, may finally build up a plausible story.
“it would be something like the work done by a famous naturalist who, it is said, from a single fossil bone of an extinct fish, that had been found, constructed its probable framework entire. years afterwards the whole skeleton of this rare, ancient fish was dug up, and the professor’s guess found to be marvellously near the truth.
“while there are a few indications of the moundbuilders west of the rockies and east of the alleghanies, they seem to have inhabited the mississippi valley, the mounds being most numerous in the states of wisconsin, illinois, missouri, and ohio. indeed, there were so many in the vicinity of the city of st. louis, that place was nicknamed ‘mound city.’
“while their civilization seems to have far exceeded that of our present race of indians, there is also indication that they lived in constant menace of some other,
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more warlike people. as we go eastward toward the alleghanies we find the mounds grow more defensive in their characteristics.
“one of the finest specimens of these defensive constructions is known as ‘fort ancient,’ and is near the little miami river, in ohio. it is on the top of a steep hill, its stiff clay walls ranging from five to twenty-five feet in height. the wall crooks and turns and twists about, until it is several miles in length, yet it encloses only land enough for a common-sized farm.
“at chillicothe there is the largest of this kind of mounds, embracing 145 acres. in connection with this old fortress there are several high mounds which may have been used for lookout stations.
“as a rule, the mounds in the valleys are not of the warlike shapes, but are laid off in squares or octagons, like the little “town” dauphin has told us about on the other side of the river. these are usually called “sacred” mounds, though it would be difficult to give a good reason why, other than the indians’ reverence for that which is mysterious and unexplained. perhaps the best known example of this class of mounds are those at newark, ohio. there is an octagon of 50 acres, a square of 35 acres, and two circles, one of 29 and the other of 20 acres. they are all joined by avenues and surrounded by ditches.
“the temple mounds are fewer in number than those of the other classes, but may, in the future, prove to yield more interest as they are compared with similar pyramids found in mexico and central america.
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in this country, the best specimen of the temple mounds is at cahokia, ills. it is nearly an hundred feet high, and is more than 200 rods around the base.
“perhaps the most curious of the work of the ancient people are the ‘animal’ mounds, fashioned after a crude representation of different beasts. one of these in the southern part of this state is a very fair reproduction of the outlines of an elephant.”
“but, father,” exclaimed ed, “how could that be? where could these people have seen an elephant? did elephants live in america then? or did the people come from the land of elephants?”
“my boy, that is a part of the mystery of the past of this mysterious race. the fact is that the grant county mound was clearly made to represent an elephant, and the rest we must guess at.
“however, the larger number of mounds that have been examined were used for burial places, undoubtedly first by the moundbuilders themselves, as well as later by the indians.”
that night the boys could scarcely sleep for planning excavations in all three of the collections of mounds near them. mr. allen had hinted that some day some mound might be uncovered which would yield the long-looked-for key that would unlock the history of this past and forgotten people. why might not it be they who would be the discoverers?
ed was for making the first investigation at the hill fort. if there had been an assault upon those works, he argued, it must have been a fierce one, and no
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doubt there would be found many of the weapons of the attacking party buried in the soft earth beneath the steep walls. rob contended that if the mounds between the rivers were, indeed, the site of one of their towns, more relics would be found there to show what manner of people they were in their everyday life. especially would it be so, he argued, if they had been suddenly driven from their homes by an enemy.
“you remember, ed, when captain hunt and his soldiers came after the winnebagoes and they left their camps in a hurry, they first buried many of their household utensils in the ground. you know how they then smoothed down the earth and built a fire over the place, so that the ashes and coals would give the ground an appearance of not having been disturbed. i imagine we may find some such caches in that mound village.”
necessary work interfered with the boys’ plans for several weeks, and the first flakes of late october snow were falling when they set off upon their ten miles’ walk to the mound city.
after some discussion they decided to attack the largest, central mound first, “for,” said dauphin, “this must have been the mound of the chief, if these mounds were the sites of their homes.”
carefully they dug a hole six feet across, searching carefully through each spadeful of dirt. in the first two feet down there was nothing discovered; then ed ran across two long, flint arrow- or spear-heads. a little further down they came upon a human skeleton,
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the bones of which crumbled so badly, as they were brought out to the air, that the boys were able to save only the top of the skull and one thigh bone intact.
it was only when they reached the depth of about four feet, nearly at the level of the surrounding ground, that their spades struck unmistakable evidences of fire—discolored earth, small coals, ashes, and some brown fragments, the nature of which they could not at once determine. “we have found it, hurray!” shouted rob. “they cached their goods and built their fire over them just like our indians did.”
“now, boys,” counseled dauphin, “let’s not be too hasty. let’s examine every spadeful carefully as we dig.”
now the finds became more numerous: a stone mortar and pestle, such as the indians now use for preparing their meal from maize; a red, stone pipe, curiously carved; several pure white arrow-heads, others coal-black; a stone axe, grooved near the head for its fastening to the handle; some broken earthenware vessels, decorated with queer, spear-point designs; and most valuable of all, a copper knife in fairly good state of preservation.
then they came to a great quantity of brown fragments, which upon examination, proved to be charred bone.
down through the burned earth they dug in feverish haste toward the treasure they believed to be hidden there. but alas! although they toiled until dark, they were forced to acknowledge to themselves that
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the ground beneath the fire had never been disturbed before.
“well,” said ed, “we didn’t find the ‘key’ to unlock the history of these mounds, but we’ve got one of the old fellows, with some of his dishes, his axe, his pipe, his spears and arrows, and his wife’s grist mill. that’s pretty good for one day.”
and indeed it was, although the skeleton proved, according to the decision of the professor of science at carleton college, for whose inspection the boys sent the relics, to be that of a modern indian, who had been buried probably not over an hundred years. he also wrote the boys that of the various things they had dug up, only the broken pottery could with probability be assigned to the time of the moundbuilders. he added, however, that the large amount of fragments of burned bones went to confirm the theory that the mounds of that class had been used as places in which human bodies had been burned, either in sepulchre or sacrificial rites.
other excavations were planned by the boys, but the strenuous duties of their pioneer life crowded in upon them, and the trips were put off from time to time, until it so came about that their first exploration into the affairs of the lost race, proved to be their last.
