gether contrary to what is known
amongst Indian tribes, they must have been of a different race.

If the Indians in a tribal state are known to have erected some mounds,
and to have built temple-platforms and walled towns in the south, then
all they needed was sufficient motive, religious or otherwise, to have
built the most stupendous works known. We think the ruined pueblos in
the Chaco Canyon represent as great an amount of work as many of those
of the Mound Builders. A calculation has been made, showing that over
thirty million pieces of stone were required in the construction of one
pueblo,<40> besides an abundance of timber. Each piece of stone had to
be dressed roughly to fit its place; the timbers had to be brought from
a considerable distance, cut and fitted to their places in the wall, and
then covered with other courses, besides other details of construction,
such as roof-making, plastering, and so forth, and this is not the
calculation of the largest pueblo either.<41> Yet no one supposes that
the Indian tribes who erected these structures were under a despotic
form of government.

We think, however, that it might be freely admitted that in all
probability the government of the Mound Builders was arbitrary, but so
was the government of a great many Indian tribes. Amongst the Natchez
the chief was considered as descended from the sun. Nor was this belief
confined to the Natchez, as the tribes of the Floridian Peninsula
asserted the same thing of their chiefs. Among all these latter tribes
the chief held absolute and unquestioned power over the persons,
property, and time of their subjects.<42>

Amongst the Natchez the power of the Great Sun (their title for chief)
seems to have been very great. This nation had a regularly organized
system of priesthood, of which the chief was also the head. On the death
of the chief a number of his subjects were put to death to keep him
company. But we must notice that the subjects considered it an honor to
die with the chief, and made application beforehand for the privilege.
Bearing these facts in mind, it does not seem improbable that in more
distant days, when the Natchez or some kindred tribe were in the height
of their power, the death of some great chief might well be memorialized
by the erection of a mound as grand in proportion as that of Grave
Creek.

In fact, the more we study the subject, the more firmly we become
convinced that there is no hard and fast line