ortant factor
in defenses. In this connection, Prof. Putnam has called our attention
to a fact which indicates that a very long time was occupied in the
construction of the mound, and further, that a numerous population had
utilized its platforms as house sites--that is, that "everywhere in the
gullies, and over the broken surface of the mounds, mixed with the earth
of which it is composed, are quantities of broken vessels of clay, flint
chips, arrow-heads, charcoal, bones of animals, etc., apparently the
refuse of a numerous people." The majority of writers, however, think
that this elevated site, obtained as the result of so much labor, was
utilized for important public buildings, presumedly the temple of their
gods, and no one can help noticing the similarity between this structure
and those raised by the ancient Mexicans for both religious purposes and
town sites.

Mr. Foster thinks that "upon this platform was reared a capacious
temple, within whose walls the high-priests gathered from different
quarters at stated seasons, celebrated their mystic rites, while
the swarming multitudes below looked up with mute adoration."<35> Mr.
Breckenridge, whose writings we have already referred to, at the time of
his first visit, "everywhere observed a great number of small elevations
of earth, to the height of a few feet, at regular distances apart, which
appeared to observe some order: near them pieces of flint and fragments
of earthen vessels." From this he concludes that here was a populous
town, and that this mound was a temple site. It is doubtful whether
we shall ever pierce the veil that lies between us and this aboriginal
structure. The pyramids of the Old World have yielded up their secret,
and we behold in them the tombs of Egypt's kings. But this earthen
pyramid on the western prairie is more involved in mystery, and we do
not know even its builders. If the result of religious zeal, we may be
sure that a religion which exacted from its votaries the erection of
such a stupendous piece of work was one of great power.

As before remarked, "temple mounds" increase in numbers and importance
as we go south. In Kentucky they are more frequent than in the States
north of the Ohio River, and in Tennessee and Mississippi they are still
more abundant.<36> We also learn that they are often surrounded, or
nearly so, with moats or ditches, as if to fortify their location. Our
next cut illustrates such an arrangement--a circular w