height of the octagon. We notice some other small circular works in
connection with the main work. In this case the parallels are not very
regular, and seem to be connected with one or more circular works. In a
work situated but a few miles from the one here portrayed, the parallels
extend in one direction nearly half a mile, only one hundred and fifty
feet apart. They terminate on the edge of a terrace. The object of
such parallels is as yet unknown. In some cases, after extending some
distance, they simply inclosed a mound.

It is easy enough to describe this work and give its dimensions, but who
will tell us the object its builders had in mind? The walls themselves
would afford but slight protection and if they were for defense, must
have been surmounted with palisades. Works that were undoubtedly in the
nature of fortified camps, are found in this same section, and one of
the strongest was located not more than twelve miles away; but such
defensive works differ very greatly in design from regular structures
such as we are now describing. A very eminent scholar, Mr. Morgan,
has advanced the theory that the walls were the foundations on which
communal houses, like the Pueblos of the West, were erected.<61> But
this is mere theory. All traces of such habitations (if they ever
existed) are gone, the usual _debris_ which would be sure to accumulate
around house-sites, is wanting, and the walls themselves seem unfit for
such purpose.<62>

They may have been embankments surrounding towns and cultivated fields,
but little has yet been found which can be cited as proofs of residence
within the area so inclosed. We should not be surprised, however, if
such would ultimately prove to be the case, since we now know that
the Mound Builders of Tennessee did fortify their villages by means
of embankments and ditches.<63> A number of writers think that these
regular inclosures were in some way connected with the superstitions of
the people. In other words, that they were religious in character. Mr.
Squier remarks, "We have reason to believe that the religious system
of the Mound Builders, like that of the Aztecs, exercised among them a
great, if not a controlling, influence. Their government may have been,
for aught we know, a government of the priesthood--one in which
the priestly and civil functions were jointly exercised, and one
sufficiently powerful to have secured in the Mississippi Valley, as it
did in Mexico, the erection