he ground.
They are on a far grander scale than the supposed temples or religious
works; and there are more of them than of all the other ruins, except
the small detached mounds, which are almost numberless.

These, from the charred bones found among the ashes in them, are known
to be tombs, and they were probably the sepulchers of the common people,
whose bodies were burned. The large mounds are heaped above walled
chambers, and in these were platforms, supposed to have been altars, and
whole skeletons, supposed to be the skeletons of priests buried there.
The priests are supposed to have been the chiefs of the people, and
to have ruled them through their superstitions; but there is nothing to
prove this, for their laws were never put in written words or any other
sign of speech. In some of the mounds little figures of burnt clay have
been found, which may be idols, and pieces of ancient pottery, which may
be fragments of sacred vessels, and small plates of copper, with marks
or scratches on them, which may be letters. Some antiquarians have tried
to read these letters, if they are letters, and to make sense out
of them, but no seeker after true Ohio stories can trust their
interpretations.

The Mound Builders used very little stone and showed no knowledge of
masonry. But they built so massively out of the earth, that their works
have lasted to this day in many places, just as they left them, except
for the heavy growth of trees, which the first settlers found covering
them, and which were sometimes seven or eight hundred years old. At
Marietta, these works when the white people came were quite perfect and
inclosed fifty acres on the bank of the Muskingum, overlooking the Ohio.
They were in great variety of design. The largest mound was included in
the grounds of the present cemetery, and so has been saved, but the
plow of the New England emigrant soon passed over the foundations of
the Mound Builders' temples. At Circleville the shape of their
fortifications gave its name to the town, which has long since hid them
from sight. One of them was almost perfectly round, and the other nearly
square. The round fort was about seventy feet in diameter, and was
formed of two walls twenty feet high, with a deep ditch between; the
other fort was fifty-five rods square, and it had no ditch; seven
gateways opened into it at the side and corners, and it was joined to
the round fort by an eighth. It is forever to be regretted that t