or the other of these nations out on a sort of holiday excursion, it is sufficient to say that excursionists do not build elaborate fortifications, much less construct defences that will last for centuries, even if the exigencies compel them to throw up hasty breastworks, as a defence against an unexpected foe. Nor does the supposition that they were temporary colonies sent out merely for experiment make the case more probable.

Record

of Toltecs.

Besides, no well authenticated record or inscription of the Toltecs in Nicaragua dates back beyond the sixth or probably the seventh century, and the Aztecs come some four hundred years later. In other words, trees found still growing on the mounds in Ohio, date back even with the earliest known existence of the Aztecs in Mexico; that is, the mounds were completed and abandoned before the exist ence of the Aztecs as a nation.

But if a similarity in art and architecture argues a connection between the "mound-builder" and these Southern peoples, why not suppose the Aztecs to have descended from the "mound-builders" instead of the reverse? Certain it is, that so far as

we have any data on

which to form an opinion,

the latter were the older or earlier race.

A consideration of all the facts bearing upor the subject lead us to the following hypothesis.

A

hypothesis.

Two thousand years ago, more or less, the interior of this continent was occupied by a large population of semi-civilized men far surpassing the Indian of a later day. Whence they came it is little better than idle, at the present stage of investigation, to inquire. That is a problem that cannot yet be solved, if it ever shall be. After having been long established in permanent abodes, they were driven from their homes by the incursion of powerful northern or eastern tribes, like that of Alaric and his hosts, that came down upon Rome fourteen hundred years ago, leaving behind in these mounds the evidence of their civil condition and modes of life. As they withdrew toward the south-west they made temporary stands, here and there, and erected some of their characteristic works, till, driven thence, they crossed the broad reaches of Texas and found a retreat in Mexico. And there, under more favoring circumstances, they developed the type of civilization that culminated in the halls and courts of Montezuma.

Our reason for supposing the "mound-builders" to so far antedate the Aztecs is, that the latter were at the height of their civilization, or perhaps in its early decline, when Cortez invaded their country in the sixteenth century, while the latest known work of the former carries us well back toward

the beginning of the Christian Era, or possibly beyond it.

One more question remains to be considered, What finally became of the "mound-builders?"

It is unreasonable to suppose such a people could have perished utterly, even after the disasters of the Spanish campaign in Mexico, or that they could have been so entirely absorbed by other nations as to leave no characteristic traces of themselves.

From the reports of explorers and surveying parties, we have become somewhat familiar in recent years with what are known as the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and Arizona, and also to a limited extent with the Cliff-dwellers. This region, especially Arizona, is largely a desert country, but with frequent oases of considerable extent and fertility. It is apparent that the country has un dergone important geologic and perhaps climatic changes in the past few centuries, by which its area of fertile lands has been considerably reduced; and this has tended more and more to isolate its inhabitants from the outside world; so that for a long period almost nothing was known of them. Recently it has come to light, however, that at various points in this region are towns or communities of people, in many respects unlike both the whites and the Indians. They are mild in disposi

Pueblo Indians.

tion and have some habits of industry. They have many of the arts of civilized life, though evidently degenerated from what they once were. They keep sheep, spin and weave, and clothe themselves, in part, in textile fabrics. And they cultivate fields, though by rude and comparatively inefficient means. Some of them are Pueblo Indians and some of them Cliff-dwellers. The former have great buildings, large enough to accommodate a whole community; sometimes of concrete or adobe, and sometimes of stone, where that material can be readily obtained. They are often several stories in height, each story receding from the one next below, giving it much the appearance, as Lieutenant Whipple describes it, of a huge ant-hill; which appearance is much heightened by the passing in and out of the busy multitude. There are no doors or gateways in the lower story, the only access being by ladders reaching to one of the upper terraces. These buildings are all of ancient date. Most of them are in ruins, but a few are still kept in a moderate state of repair.

The Cliff-dwellers perch like swallows on summits or in niches of the eroded rocks.

They were, by their own account, driven Cliff-dwellers. to this extremity many years ago, by

relentless foes who gave them no rest and allowed