oofs of it in the works they have left. We judge it to be true
only because sun-worship was probably a part of the religion of a large
proportion of the Indian race, and because we find special proofs of its
existence among some of the Southern Indians who are supposed to be
closely related to the Mound Builders.

Illustration of Idols. (Smith. Inst.)--------------

As we approach the South, we meet with what are supposed to be rude and
uncouth idols, but they have not been found under such circumstances as
to make it positive that they belonged to the Mound Builders. In this
illustration we have two idols, considered to be genuine relics of the
stone-grave people of Tennessee. The first one is an Aztec idol found at
Cholula, and introduced here simply for comparison. What position these
idols held in connection with the religion of the race, we are not
prepared to say.

Similar remarks might be made as to the system of government. A
number of writers, taking into account the immense labor involved in
constructing some of the works, have insisted that the people must have
lived under a despotic form of government, one in which the state had
unlimited power over the lives and fortunes of its subjects.<102>

There is no real foundation for such views, and we think they are
misleading. No one doubts but that the Mound Builders were living in
a tribal state of society. If so, they doubtless had the usual
subdivisions of a tribe. This point we remember afforded us some insight
into the meaning of the effigy mounds of Wisconsin.

This would imply the government by the council, and while the rulers may
have been hereditary, the officers of the tribe were probably elective,
and could be deposed for cause. We do not mean to assert that this is an
exact picture of the state of government of the Mound Builders, because
our knowledge on this point is not sufficient to make such a positive
statement, but it is far more likely to be true than the picture of a
despotic government, ruling from some capital seat a large extent of
country, holding a court with barbaric pomp and circumstances such as
some writers would have us believe.

We hope our readers have not been wearied by this somewhat extended
investigation of the Mound Builders. Every storm that beats upon their
works tends to level them. The demands of our modern life are fast
obliterating the remaining monuments and, indeed, it is now only
those which are situated