hey bend
in and out, and rise and fall, much resembles, he thinks, two massive
green serpents rolling along the summit of this high hill. If any such
resemblance occurs, we think it purely accidental. In relation to the
wall across the isthmus, it has been thought to have been the means
of defending one part of the work should an enemy gain entrance to the
other. It has also been supposed that at first the fort was only
built to the cross wall on the isthmus, and afterwards the rest of the
inclosure was added to the work.

The total length of the embankment is about five miles, the area
enclosed about one hundred acres. For most of this distance the grading
of the walls resembles the heavy grading of a railroad track. Only one
who has personally examined the walls can realize the amount of labor
they represent for a people destitute of metallic tools, beasts of
burden, and other facilities to construct it.

Now, what was the object of this work? We think it was not simply a
fort, but rather a fortified village. That it must have required the
work of a numerous body of people, is undoubted, and if they lived
elsewhere, where are the works denoting such a fact? We would further
suggest that, if this was the seat of a tribe, each of the two divisions
might have been the location of a phratry of the tribe, by a phratry,
meaning the subdivision of a tribe. We would call especial attention
to the two mounds seen just outside of the walls at the upper end.
From these mounds two low parallel walls extended in a north-easterly
direction some thirteen hundred and fifty feet, their distant ends
joining around a small mound. As this mound was not well situated for
signal purposes, inasmuch as it did not command a very extensive view,
and as the embankments would afford very little protection, unless
provided with palisades, it seems as if the most satisfactory
explanation we have is that it was in the nature of a religious work.

Mr. Hosea thinks he has found satisfactory evidence that between these
walls there was a paved street, as he discovered in one place, about
two feet below the present surface, a pavement of flat stones.<73>
From this, as a hint, he eloquently says: "Imagination was not slow to
conjure up the scene which was once doubtless familiar to the dwellers
at Fort Ancient. A train of worshipers, led by priests clad in their
sacred robes, and bearing aloft the holy utensils, pass in the early
morning, ere yet the