The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1897-11-17

lngs representing quadrupeds, birds,
bird tracks and symbollcGl or taucfui
objects, The floor is spread 10 a depth
of two feet with the bones of fishes and
beasts, fragments of pottery, charcoal
and ashes, Even more remarkable Is
the cave near Guntersyille, Ala, Evil
IDENTIFY IL was utilized for many gem
erutlons as cemetery, and the num-.
Der OF dead deposited Ia ID must have
been very great Though much of its
contents has been hauled away IN sacks,
for fertIliziug land, the floor Is yet COW
cred TO n depth Of four feet with ma
terial composed chiefly of fragments
Of human bones, In Tennessee and
Kentucky the flesh Of bodies stored in
caves centuries ago Is sometimes re-
markubly preserved,
On a farm in Bollinger county, Mo-,
/ Is an area of considerable extent STIR
rounded by am ancient wall of earth
about three feet high in places. In
side of IT, formerly, were many remark
able mounds used for burial places by
the Indians OF prehistoric times, but
40 years of continued cultivation Of the
soil have nearly leveled them. Plow-
ing over one of the mounds few years
ago the owner struck something, and,
on digging further in the earth, diseoy-
cred two stone collins each containing
skeleton. In one of the collins he
found a gourd-shaped vessel filled with
lead ore, so pure that be afterwards
turned II into bullets.
In 1879 people in the neighborhood |
of town in Mississippi discovered that
the pottery, In which the mounds of |
that region were unusually rich, had |
considerable commercial value. The |
specimens obtained were sold to mer-
chants, who in turn furnished them to
museums, scientific institutions and
relic hunters.
Reyerting to the fact that the mound
builders continued their work after
Columbus, Nespucius, De Soto Cortez
and Pizarro cursed the ground with
their lawless and brutal heels, it must
be sand that articles of Caucasian man
obtained by barter on the
coast or from wrecks, quickly found
their way to the interior of the conti-
uent, passing from hand to hand in the
course Of traffic between tribes, or by
capture in war, The system of trade
which existed anciently among the In
dams was surprisingly efficient and sat
Aboriginal drummers ac-
tualIy made their way on foot from the
iulf of Mexico to the headquarters of
the Mississippi river. The products of ,
The native mines of copper, flint and /
mica were distributed in a manner suhi- |
'iently busiuess-lilie to be worthy of a
more educated civilization. Dried oys- $
ers and other shell fish were shipped {
inland, just as the same mollusks are f.
ent from the Atlantic coast to the il
titles of the interior to-day, Thus sea n
hells are found in the mounds of Hi "a
ois and Wisconsin, while articles of f.
native Wisconsin copper occur in the g,
umuli of West Virginia IN
That the mound builders were great
mokcrs is proved by the large number
f pipes found in their mounds and
raves. So numerous are these and 50 I
-ideiy distributed that pipemaking and -
ipesmoking may be considered as =
larkcd characteristic of that ancient :,
eople. This will serve in a way as "
supplementary evidence that they were III
indians; for the Indian is par excellence
he man who smokes. and the pipe is es-
entail TO his happiness.
The correspondent is neither a sci III
ltist nor a philosopher, and yet may pr
q lie q C11ppagti1D NIa,-bo ,,oL,,l,-,,.;II lit