The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1892-04-21

| forms . single species and that the human
race is not only unit, but has been continuou:
from the first The antiquity of mankind, the
| degree to which adjustment and REIMBURSEMENT
may change them, and the extent of primitive
peoples migrations have all been underesti-
mated and misconceiyed under the lnnuence
| of theoretical preconceptions. Those writers
who are probably the best prepared to express
an authoritative opinion upon this question
say that the type represented by the Mound
builders was not unique.
DR.. Brintou's statement to the effect that
these works were constructed by the fore
fathers of the present Indians" expresses the
sense of this school of ethnologists, and Cava
remarks in this connection their assignment to
" a mythical people of a different civilization,
is to reject simple and satisfactory explana-
ton of fact in favor of one that is far-fetched
and incomplete"
In both instances the populations belonged
to the Neolithic Period. The tribes who
erected the earthworks of Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois, aud those who were found by the
early French, English. and Spanish explorers
in the valleys of the Mississippi and its trlbu-
taries correspondent closely, so far as their
culture is concerned.
The appliances of life. creeds and customs of
the Indians Of the forests and plains VIII DC
considered hereafter. IL is now necessary, IN
order that this sketch may make some ap-
preach TO completeness, 10 describe those be-
longing 10 the former people.
But few traces Of human presence anywhere
are earlier than those furnished by ceramic re-
mains. Pottery is, even in its fragments one
of the most iudestruc,ible of all substances,
and il is also in some form one OF the most
common among the productions of mankind.
The origin Of the potter's art, like that of all
Others, is purely coniectural, and il is very I'M
probable that they had common origin.
There must have been an immense period
when men made nothing, and this was followed
by one during which their rude experiments
in different directions which did not result in
appliances sufficiently perfect to be permanent
Wherever they lived. however, human be-
ings who had passed out of primitive savaSery
attempted TO prepare and preserve food and the
Elasticity Of wet clay, its presence everywhere
and the obvious fact thstit hardened with heat,
naturally suggested il as a material for manu-
facture But the clay itself and the processes
TO which il Was subjected differed considerably
with locality. For example, better pottery was
made in Missouri than in Ohio; that of Ken
tucky and Virginia cannot be compared with
the earthenware Of illinois, and the Michigan
manufactures are the coarsest of all.
Although the evidences of An extensive COM
mercial intercourse are found in the tumuli of
these and other States, intercommuncation
was both slow and indirect. Articles, chiefly
those which were ornamental, curious. or had
some superstitioHs significance, passed from
tribe to tribe until they had traversed long dis
t8nces, but, for every reason, the groups them
selves were more or less isolated.
All that the highest civilization can accom-
plish has not as yet fitted men 20 live together
in societies without mutual aggression and out