NOTES ON AMERICAN TUMULI.

BY DR. A. C. FRYER.

(Read 4th April 1894.)

AN American writer has said recently that "there is no truth in the attractive notion that once a mighty nation occupied the Valley of the Mississippi, with its frontiersettlements resting on the lake-shores and Gulf-coast, nestling in the Valley of the Appalachian Range, and skirting the broad plains of the West,-a nation with its systems of government and religion, which has disappeared, leaving behind it no evidence of its glory, power, and extent, save the mounds and what they contain."

These mounds are of many and various shapes; but their usual form is a low, broad, round-topped cone; and we are told that some of them attain a height of 80 or even 90 ft., with a diameter of 300 ft. at the base. Others, which appear to have been rarely used for burial purposes, are constructed like walls, and are 20, or even in some cases 40 ft. wide, 3 or 4 ft. high, and 100 ft. long.

The reason for the erection of these mounds is still a mystery. The so-called effigy-mounds are found in Wisconsin and in parts of Iowa. These mounds are said to represent birds and many kinds of mammals,—deer, antlered elks, bears, rabbits, etc. Some of the birds have a spread of 250 ft. from one wing-tip to the other wing-tip; and it seems probable that some of the mounds which were formerly supposed to represent men, are swallowtailed birds. The so-called "elephant" mound is now thought to represent a bear. "One of the most remarkable features of these effigies", says a writer who has studied them, "is the imitative curving and rounding of the bodies of the animals. Looking over a specimen which has suffered but little wearing away by weather or other causes, it is difficult to get rid of the notion that the builders actually had the animal lying before them when they constructed the mound."

During the past few years a great advance has been

made in the knowledge of these mounds, which are scattered over the greater part of the United States in vast numbers. It is now considered that the box-shaped stone graves, with the mounds containing them, found in Kentucky and northern Georgia, are the work of the Shawnee Indians, while those in the Valley of the Delaware and in Ohio were created by the Delawares. In northern Mississippi the tumuli are principally attributed to the Chickasaws, and those in the Gulf States to the Muskokee tribes. It is also thought that the mounds in the Kanawha Valley, West Virginia, in western North Carolina, and in eastern Tennessee, were created by the Cherokees.

In one tumulus in Iowa eleven skeletons were discovered in the central chamber. These were arranged in a circle, with their backs against the walls, while a seashell, which had been converted into a drinking-horn, had been placed in their midst. In cavities in this mound, dust (which is supposed to have been the ashes. of burnt flesh) was discovered, while in other mounds a peculiar, black, felt-like substance" (which is thought to have been human flesh) was found. An American writer, speaking of these discoveries, says, "Many tribes of Indians, in ancient times, made a practice of removing the flesh from the bones of the dead, commonly by exposing the bodies on elevated platforms, where they were permitted to undergo the processes of decay. Very likely the practice had its origin in an obvious precaution against the digging up of corpses by hungry wild beasts."

In another mound in Iowa, a skeleton measuring 7 ft. 6 in. in length was found. A collar of bears' teeth was around the neck, while numbers of small copper beads, formed by rolling strips of the metal into little rings, were across the thighs. It has been conjectured that these beads may have adorned a hunting-shirt.

There were many mounds surrounded by a wall of earth on a farm1 in Bollinger County, Missouri. The cultivation of the soil for forty years has unfortunately levelled them to a considerable extent. However, it appears that some years ago two stone coffins were dis

1 Mr. Peter Bess was the owner of this farm.

covered while ploughing. Each coffin contained a skeleton, and a gourd-like vessel, filled with lead, had been placed with one of them. The owner of the farm is said to have found the lead so pure that he afterwards melted it into bullets.

During the last few years we learn that more than two thousand mounds have been excavated, and pins, needles, bracelets, silver brooches, pearls, engraved shells, a silver plate with the shield of arms of Spain, a fur-covered brassnailed trunk, a copper kettle, and many other things have been discovered. Many of these articles point to the fact that mound-building and also burial in mounds were carried on long after the white races had landed on the shores of America. "In fact", says Major T. W. Powell, "I myself have seen such mounds in process of construction by Indians. There has never been an atom of evidence to prove that any other race than the Indians. themselves was concerned in the erection of these works."

It is interesting to notice how articles obtained by barter on the coast passed from tribe to tribe, and how sea-shells are found in the mounds of Illinois and Wisconsin, while in the mounds of West Virginia articles made from native Wisconsin copper have been discovered.

The opening of these tumuli seems to prove that the Indian did not adopt the habit of roaming until after the invasion of the whites. He seems to have cultivated the land, and it has been demonstrated that maize was his chief food. American students now tell us that "these tumuli were never built for sacrificial purposes"; and the oldest mounds are those of the most elaborate patterns, such as the effigies.

Where the Indians did originally come from is still a question in dispute among American students. Dr. Brinton considers that they may have come from Europe during the great ice-age, by way of a land-connection which once existed over the Northern Atlantic. Others, however, think some arrived from the Pacific, and others from the Atlantic side, and after a long period were moulded into a homogeneous race. Much has been written on this question, and the last word in the controversy has not yet been said.

THE

ORIGIN OF THE PARISH CHURCH BUILDINGS AND INSTITUTIONS IN BRITAIN

IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

BY R. DUPPA LLOYD, ESQ., F.R.HIST.S.

(Read 21st March 1894.)

THE historical or archæological records, that can be depended upon to retrace or evince the origin of the institutions and architectural constructions of early Christianity, are exceedingly rare, for from the first up to the commencement of the third century the Christians had usually held their assemblies (to which they gave the name of churches)' in private houses. The very first notice of such meeting may be said to be given by the Saviour (St. Matthew, chap. xxvi, v. 18), "I will keep the Passover at thy house.' After the Resurrection the Apostles assembled at a house. St. Peter held an assembly at Jaffa, in the house of Simon the tanner. St. Paul held an assembly of the church in an upper chamber, when the young man fell from the third story. Uncovered, in the open air of the Areopagus, St. Paul held forth on the catholic doctrine that maketh one blood of all nations and peoples, and the Lord of heaven and earth, who dwelleth not in temples or buildings made with hands; so that, at this epoch of Christianity, no ecclesiastical or sacerdotal construction was even thought of.

From the death of St. Paul and St. Peter, in 66, and during the time of the Empire under Nero (64 to 68),2 Domitian (95), Trajan (106), Marcus Aurelius (166 and 167), and Septimus Severus (199, 204), the Christians held their assemblies in private houses, in sequestered, desert places, in ruined temples, ancient tombs, subterraneous excavations, and catacombs.

1 The collective body of Christians which gradually formed an independent, republican state in the heart of the Empire.

2 The ten persecutions of the primitive Christians.

About the beginning of the third century (that is, after Septimus Severus died at York, in Britain), the Christians were permitted, for the first time, to erect and consecrate convenient edifices for the purpose of religious worship, to purchase lands for the use of the churches, and to conduct the assemblies for the election of their ecclesiastical ministers in public. During this long repose of the Church, the ancient laws of persecution against the Christians, without being repealed, were suffered to sink into oblivion, and the disciples of Christ passed a long interval of peace and prosperity. The rapid progress and extension of the Church through every part of the Empire, especially through Gaul and Britain, awakened the enemies from their supine indifference to what had been looked upon, up to this time, as an obscure

sect.

The bishops held an honourable rank in their respective provinces, and almost in every city the church buildings were found insufficient to contain the vast multitudes of proselytes, and many more capacious and splendid edifices were erected. It is probable that the first ideas in Europe of church architecture were taken from the catacombs, the ruined towers, and the circular tombs of the ancient Etruscans and Romans.

About the end of the third century we find Galerius and Maximian, the subordinate Emperors to Diocletian, entertained the most implacable aversion for the religion of the Christians, and during the winter of 303 it was determined to set bounds, in every part of the Empire, to the progress of Christians. On the 24th Feb. 303, the edict against the Christians was issued by Diocletian for the destruction of the church buildings in all the provinces of the Empire, that all the volumes of Scripture should be burnt, and sentence of death was denounced against all who should hold any assembly in any building whatever for the purpose of religious worship.

The consideration of these events brings us down to the epoch of the mild administration of Constantius Chlorus in the subordinate station of a Cæsar in Britain (292306). All his principal officers at Eboracum (York) were

1 The demolition of the church buildings of Nicomedia.