sun, a remnant certainly, if not a form of worship of the sun. After the manner of the ancient Greeks, they recognize deities or guardian spirits as presiding over fountains and the like. Coming to a spring on their journeys, they make an offering before they drink. A handful of meal scattered about the fountain may serve the purpose. They suspend something like a piece of candle-wick with one end in the spring, and when the water, following the law of capillary attraction, runs up the wick, they account it evidence that the spirit is drinking, that their offering is accepted and they are at liberty to drink.

Who, now, are these people, and whence came they?

Again we answer for ourselves.

They are the feeble remnant of the Aztecs-the mighty people, mighty at least in num- The "moundbers, who under the Montezumas held builders" and the Moquis. the vast rich fields of Mexico, till they fell before the cupidity of the Spanish conqueror. And if the Aztecs were the "mound-builders" and the Moquis were the Aztecs, the deduction is a plain one, that the Moquis of New Mexico to-day, are the remote remnant of the "mound-builders" of the Mississippi valley of two thousand years ago. We shall be met at this point by some enthusi astic archæologists whose opinion is entitled to re

spect, with the assumption that there is no similarity between the languages of these two Language of the "mound- races, so remote from one another. But

builders." they will probably insist on some con

nection between the "mound-builders" and the Aztecs.

We reply, that of the language of the "moundbuilders" we know absolutely nothing. And it is, therefore, as impossible to trace any affinity in language between the "mound-builders" and the Aztecs, as between the "mound-builders" and the Moquis. But there is a likeness in art and architecture, in apparent religion and modes of life, between the "mound-builders" and the Aztecs, and a still better established likeness between the Aztecs and the Moquis.

We have little data on which to trace the ethnic relations of the "mound-builders.”

Race affinities.

In two or three skulls recovered in a sufficient state of preservation to be accurately examined, is the low forehead and prominent cheek-bone, that suggest the Mongolian rather than the Caucasian race, and yet it is not established that they belonged to either. Judged by these skulls, they were not given to great virtues or great vices; nor were they great inventors, though probably clever imitators; a mild and comparatively inoffensive race; capable of efficient service under

a master mind, but falling an easy prey to a crafty and cruel foe. Such a people might be efficient in building the Chinese wall, or the Egyptian pyramids, or the mounds of the great West, but are not likely to achieve great success in life. These qualities were evident characteristics of the "moundbuilders." They are historic characteristics of the Aztecs; and from what we have been able to learn, are the actual and present characteristics of the Moquis.

Epitome

and conclusion.

This, then, is an epitome of the whole matter. The "mound-builders" inhabited the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries not less than two thousand years ago. They were a peculiar people, unlike the whites and unlike the Indians of recent times. They possessed a good degree of civilization; lived in fixed communities, cultivated fields, and clothed themselves in fabrics woven by their own hands. They modelled images in clay, carved the hardest stone, and erected elaborate defences against a foe. They had a national religion, built temples and altars, and offered sacrifices. They had also a stable government, in which the masses were subordinate to the ruling power.

Driven out at length from their established homes, they withdrew toward the south-west, into Mexico, and possibly into Nicaragua, where they

practiced the same arts as before, their architecture assuming an improved and more lasting form.

Finally, overrun and driven again from home, they withdrew toward the North, gradually dwindling in numbers and declining in enterprise by reason of their multiplied ill-fortunes. And now, in the midst of a comparatively desert region are the remains of the second empire-the power that after the mound-builders held dominion and left traces of civilization in North America.

THE END

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