Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-13

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the Mound Builders to have been the In
| dians' projenitors, but on the contrary pro-
| nounces them distinct people.
The tradition is handed down by the Lenni
Lenape, or Delawares, who at the begin
ming OF the historic period occupied region
about coeXtensive with the present State
of Pennsylvania and some contiguous terri
tory in New jersey and Delaware. They
claimed that they were not aborigines of
this region. but that ages before they had
been created and dwelt upon ths shores of
that great sea IN which the sun sank at
night-the Pacific. That many centuries
before the white man came they had jour
neyed eastward in search of favored land
of which their wise men told them, and at
or near the Father of Waters they had come
in contact with the Iroquois, destined to be
for ages their chief enemy. The Iroquois,
like themselves, were journeying eastward.
A Battle at the Mississippi.
Upon the eastern side of the Mississippi
they came upon a powerful race, who con-
tested their crossing that stream. But by
joining forces with their future enemies, the
Lenni Lenape battled successfully with the
strange people and passed through their
country to the promised land of the Lenape,
the shores OF the Delaware. The ancient
tradition of the Delawares says that their
enemy were great nation and had many
forts and temples, and they called them
selves Aliegewi. So the Lenape gave to
the stream which marked the easternmost
boundary of the strange race the name
Allegewi sipu (stream) or Allegewi hanne
(hanne also meaning stream and being gen.
orally applied to the lesser ones while sipu
was reserved for the greater, as the Missis-
slppi, OF which name it indeed forms part.
And Allegewi hanne becoming by easy
linguistic evolution Allegheny, we have to-
day, perpetuated in the name of one OF our
most romantic rivers, the name of the mys-
terious race and perhaps the Oldest Of
American words.
The destiny of the Mound Builder race
its ultimate outcome with the other nations
into the clear daylight of history-perhaps
we may never know with absolute certainty,
and still there are many Americanists who
believe that we already do know
That the Mound Builders journeyed
southwark and finally into Mexico, gaining
power and civilization as they went, is indi-
Gated by many details, among others by a
marked and constant increase in the size
and conformation OF the crania found by the
explorers as they pass southwark Then
the character of the earth and art works
which remaining alike in kind, steadily i'm
prove in quality going to the south, indicate
of the North became the teocalli of the
South, and finally appear temple crowned
In Mexico, the race reached the zenith of
its civilization there.
Conclusion of Close Students.
To such evidence as this (and there is a
vast deal of it which cannot be here ad-
duced) is added much in the way of con-
firmatlon by the books of lifelong
students of Mexican antiquities, like Lord
Kingsborough. His work, of which the
present writer has seen copy in Phila-
delphia private library, and which, by the
way, cost its wealthy author his lite, and
was otherwise one of the costliest books
ever issued, the expense Of its publication
being not far from $500, ,0OO-throws
vast deal of light on the general
GUS Mexican hieroglyphics, which may vet
be deciphered, and throws immeasurably
greater illumination upon the early
history OF the people who he
thinks were the descendants of the
Ohio Mound Builders. Among those
who regard as already demonstrated the
identity of the Mound Builders with one of
the Mexican races, are the learned DR.. Foster
Gn his prehistoric Races of the United
States and the late Rev. John T. Short,
of the Ohio State University, of Columbus,
-. DOtn pOlut TO Lne NanuaS as being the |
particular race into which the ancient |
Mound Builders developed, and they ad- |
duce evidence from Mexican history to show |
that this people who became incorporated |
with the more ancient Mayas, lived |
long in land to the north |
ward which they called "Hue-hue-rlap-
alan" Prot: Short going further
than some other writers says that he found
ground for believing that this region in
which they had additionally dwelt was the |
country Of the Mound Builders and even
sets down on the authority of Nahua his
tory and comparison of their calendars,
the year of the Mound Builder exodus from
"Hue-hue- -Tlapalan," as A. d. al or six
teen and hall centuries ago.
ALI Of this is arrived at not by any wild
plunge in the dark, but by careful, labori-
Gus comparative studies and computation
upon the basis of ancient Mexican data and
dates. If this be fact, as there seems the
best and most substantial reason to believe it
elevates the Mound Builder race to q high
plane of civilization for the Nahuas, as they
came to be called in their Southern home,
we're SO we'll advanced in astronomical
science as to approximate the true length
Of the year within two minutes and nine |.
seconds ct the time Cortez came among
Them, thus closely rivaling the astronomers
of Europe. ALFRED MATHEwS
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