The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-04

ing in to the chunky yard. Singularly erough, from the same government pub lieation, above referred to, we get the following: The elevated platform of earth as a house site is an element in Indian architecture which reappears in conspicuous manner in the solid pyra- midal platforms upon which the great stone structures in Yucatan and Cen tral America were erected;" and further on we find as follows: "The buildings l upon it's summit were often in the form of a quadrangle. with an open court in the center: but the buildings are generally disconnected at the four angles, as in the house of the nuns at Uxmal," and also the same William Bartram says he found in use among the Creeks. William Bartram, describing the build irgs of the public square, says: "The prin- cipal or council house is divided trans versely into three equal apartments. sepa- rated from each other by a low clay wall. This building is also divided leagitudi- nally into two equal parts the foremost or front is an open piazza where are seats for the council. The middle apartment is for the king (micco), the great war chief, second head nan and other ven- cradle and worthy chiefs and warriors. The two others are for the warriors and citizens generally. The back apartment of this house is quite close and dark, and without entrances except three very low-arched holes or doors for admitting the priests. Here are deposited all of the most valuable public things, as the eagles tail or national standard, the sacred calu- met, the drums and all the apparatus of the priests. None but the priests having the care of these articles are admitted, and it is said to be certain death for any
 other person to enter. Fronting this is
 another building called the banquetinS
 house, and the edifices upon either hand
 are halls to accommodate the people on
 public occasions, as feasts, festivals, etc.
 The three buildings last mentioned are
 very much alike, and differ from the
 co ouncil house only in not having the close
 back apartment
 The stone structures, the remains of
 wEich are still to be found in Central American countries, built, as above de- scribed, on the flat top of earth mounds, still bear evidence of the artistic skill of the builders; and among the ruins are
 bas reliefs of men in profile, all of which seem to have foreheads so retreating as to indicate that they were flat heads" Bearing out this same idea we quote the following from the same government pub lication above referred to: "At a recent meeting of the National Academy of Science at Washington, where this sub ject was presented, ProfA o. c. Marsh re- marked in confirmation of this sugges- ton (which was a suggestion that the
 
 the Ohio valley came from Mexico), that in series of comparisons of Indian skulls, he had been struck with the sini- larity between the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and of the Mound Builders. As the shape of the Mound Builders skull is very peculiar, the coincidence is very striking one.
 On the same page from which we have quoted we find this further:
 A number of arClaeOlOglStS. who have considered the question of the probable ar terior home of the Mound Buildings are inclined to derive them from Central America"
 The added light coming from the old student and traveller, William Bartram, is that these mounds were in actual use by the Creeks (so-called) when he visited them. But ''the Gentleman of Elvas" tells us that the Indian lord' of the village near where DeSoto landed in 1539, Ucita by name, had his house on 8 high mount near the shore, the mound hav- ing been built "by hand,' and the ar- engagement, he concludes, is by design flor strength If this mount bearing on it's top the chiefs house so existed in 15S, when the same place is supposed to have been visited by Narvaez, Babeza de Vaca does not mention the fact, though he does mention the fact that all of the inhabitants of Indians found by him until after he crossed a certain great river in the west, some six years later, beyond the Mississippi were temporary structures, described in some places by him as a bed of oyster shells for floor, and woven mats for sides The probabilities are that the Indians at the time Cabeza de Vaca was among them had so recently arrived that they had not had time to arrange permanent locations and permanent hcmes; their temporary villages being lit tie else than organized camps.
 The mounds found by Colonel flaw lzins in 1796 in the valley of the Alabama river above Montgomery, and in the "Cussetuh fields, were some of them higher than those described by Bartram and may have been built for a very diff ferent purpose, as he suggests in his diary. So also the conical mounds, built without the usual flat top, and some of them very high, in what is known as the