The heap was irregular in shape and about four hundred yards in circumference at the base. It consisted entirely of quantities of human skulls and bones. We examined it sufficiently to enable certain facts to be made clear. From the manner in which groups of skulls and thigh bones were placed and separated, it was evident that the burials took place at considerable intervals of time. This is in accordance with what is known of the funeral customs of the Indians in Florida and the southern parts of the Mississippi Valley at the time of the expedition of De Soto.
It was then ascertained that in each of the villages there was a large building in which were kept boxes containing human bones. Before the bones were collected in this manner, the bodies had been placed in the adjacent forest, exposed to the air but raised on a scaffolding sufficiently high to prevent them from being disturbed by wild animals. After a suitable time had elapsed the bones were separated and cleaned, and were then deposited in the charnel-house, where religious ceremonies were frequently performed. Upon certain occasions, when the boxes were getting full, the bones were taken away and conveyed to the tribal burial place.
Judging from the manner in which the bones were deposited in the mound, it is probable that they were brought in their separate cases, and that the contents of each case were carefully kept together and finally thrown out in separate heaps. The occasions when the bones were brought here, may have been those when the tribes made their migrations to the seacoast. The methods of cleaning and removing the bones of the Indians in Florida were similar to those of the Dakotas.
On the coast, a few miles north of Cedar Keys, there were other large shell mounds, and in Tampa Bay I was shown the position of a long and extensive range of similar heaps on its southern shores. It is evident that before the sixteenth century there must have been a numerous aboriginal race inhabiting these coasts. The scattered remnants of the tribes that remained in Florida at the conclusion of the last Indian war in this region, have been removed and placed upon lands beyond the Mississippi.
CHAPTER XIX.
Mounds and Earthworks in North and Central America.—Migrations of the Toltecs and Aztecs.—The Quichés.—Aboriginal races.—Palenque.—Hieroglyphs.—Temples.—Desertion of the Temples and stone buildings in Yucatan.—Conquest of Yucatan by the Aztecs.—Antiquity of Palenque and Uxmal.—Aztec custom of imprisoning captives in cages and sacrificing them to the gods.—Civilisation of the Toltecs.—Note upon the symbol or Totem of the Serpent.
In the following chapters I propose to bring together the various notes upon the Indians and their temples and earthworks which were made when traversing Central America, and to add to them the conclusions which have been formed subsequently.
There are certain problems which particularly require to be examined. With respect to the antiquity of the stone buildings and pyramids, it would be difficult to attempt to do more than endeavour to form reasonable deductions from the evidence afforded by the state of those ruins, and the information given about them by the Indians at the time of the conquest. The conquerors, after they had settled in Yucatan and Guatemala, were accompanied by Spanish missionaries of great ability. We possess in the writings of Bishop Las Casas and Bishop Landa works of the greatest value, for both those prelates when they were engaged in their duties of converting the natives, were acquainted with the language of the tribes amongst whom they worked.
In the prosecution of researches into subjects which relate to Central America, it is desirable as a preliminary step to consider the comparative civilisation of the Indians, as far as that is brought into evidence by what has been discovered with respect to mounds and earthworks, not only in that region, but also throughout the valley of the Mississippi. A distinction must also be made between earthworks which are unquestionably of great antiquity, and those that possibly may have been raised since the date of the arrival of European settlers. Therefore the geometrically planned inclosures in Ohio should be excluded from this inquiry. It is otherwise with great ramparts such as those inclosing Fort Ancient on the steep promontory in the valley of the Little Miami, which are of special importance on account of the parallelisms with the similar fortifications made by the Quichés and Kachiquels in Guatemala.
There are exceptional circumstances connected with the mounds in North America. It has to be remembered that they were not always burial places. When De Soto arrived with his fleet in Florida, the chief cacique of the tribe dwelling near the landing place, was living on the top of a mound about fifty feet high. This mound was pointed out to me when I was at Tampa. It appeared to be made for the purpose of placing huts upon its summit. The platform was sufficiently large to give room for several dwellings. There are also mounds near the western bank of the Mississippi, between Natchez and the mouth of the Arkansas. One of them resembled that at Tampa, and had a wide level space on the summit.