“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 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 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, more warlike people. As we go eastward toward the Alleghanies we find the mounds grow more defensive in their characteristics.