The suburban citizen., 1902-04-19

the religious superstitions which they
retained, involving human sacrifice,
self.torture. immOlation of war pris.
oners, and sundry barbarous ceremo.
nies which date back to earliest times,
and obtain even now in isolated parts
of North America. The sun dance of
the plains Indians is a relic of the sun
worship of Chichen-Itza and Peru,
with its attendant crueltes. All the
Indian tribes burned their captives on
occasional survival of ancient rites.
Untold and uncalculated years u
took for the Central American migra'
ton to reach the western verge of the
Great Plains, which had emerged and
grown to grass during the interval
since 1t was the quarternary floor of
the sea. For nearly four centuries
their polyglot descendants, who were
dubbed aborigines by European explor-
ers, have been an chronological puzzle
to the world but time seems to have
solved the problem. The hypothesis
Of the reversion Is easy. Their pro.
genitors like all pioneers, unquestion-
ably took with them all necessary
store Clothes tools, seeds, mechanical
appliances and domestic utensils, but
after they were isolated from the par
ent stock and base of supplies, they
learned to substitute makeshifts for
whatever was worn out or lost. Dresses
of skins, furs and pleated grasses re-
placed their home garments, and i'm
plements of stone, horn, bone, shell and
ivory took the place Of their original
tools of iron, bronze and copper. Some
of the more intelligent and energetic
discovered mines of various ores, and
worked them in a rude fashion for a
while, like those at Lake Superior,
but the industry was finally abandoned
because it was easier and cheaper to
use what was handiest. Metal orna.
ments, pottery, baskets, footgear and
woven fabrics were retai1ed the long
est, because they were indispensable,
The manufacture of these was an art
that could not he lost. Reverson is
not necessarily a slow process. 1t de-
pends largely upon the environment.
Intercourse brings intellect Isolation
clogs it, and will sometimes Danish it,"
According to Mr. Hallock the Indians
may be divided into two great classes,
the forest tribes and the hunting or
horse tribes. Between these there
speedily grew up enmity. The Chip
pewas may be taken as a typical eX-
ample of the first class and the Sioux
Of the second, and the last great battle
between these two was fought as re.
Gently as 1857, Mr.. Hallock believes
that the great series Of Western
mounds had their origin in these in
terminable wars between the sedentary
woodsmen and the fierce plainsmen.
Some are entrenchments, displaying
much military engineering skill"
while others are great tumuli, where
hosts Of the slain are buried" Others
still were used for "sacrifcial pur.
poses, for dykes, as sites for temples
and dwellings, as refugees from inun.
dations, as amphitheatres for ball
games and for ornamental purposes,
as in public parks and gardens Of the.
present day Many in the semblance
Of elephants, leopards, turtles, rats.
snakes, deer and the like were copied
from the Aztec and TOltec gardens
and from others extant in the Zuni
and Mohave country. They were re.
produced Just as we copy patterns
from the Old World" Mr.. Hallock
thus agrees with the best modern au-
thorities that there was no race Of
vanished mound builders" but that
the mounds were the work of the inn
mediate ancestors of the Indians of
to-day. In conclusion, the writer as.
serts again that "every new archeolog.
ical discovery adds to the analogy
which go to make up testimony to es.
tablish the more than hypothetical or.
lgln of our American aborigines, and
the close relations between their an.
cestors Of Central America and the
peoples Of Egypt and Asia"
If it be true that a race far enough
advanced in civilization to construct
the cities whose ruins are the wonder
Of Central American travellers has de.
generated into the wild Indian tribes
of to-day, that fact is certainly provo.
cative Of thought. We are accus
toned to assume that our descendants
must advance in civilization no matter
what their environment may be. After
all, we can reassure ourselves by re.
membering that, according to this the.
ory, the aboriginal races of this con.
tinent were Asiatics Perhaps Cauca-
slams would not have deteriorated un.
der the same conditions.-Literary Di.
gest.
Insisted on His Rights.