28 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS
builders, like that of the Aztecs, was disfigured by sanguin- ary observances, and that human sacrifices were not deemed unacceptable to the divinity of their worship. It is of course impossible in this connection to go into the details of the evidence upon this or kindred points of interest.
The Mounds.
Intimately connected with the interesting works already described are the mounds; of these, however, little has hitherto been known. The popular opinion, based, in a great degree, upon the well ascertained purposes of the barrows and tumuli occurring in certain parts of Europe and Asia, is, that they are simple monuments, marking the last resting-place of some great chief or distinguished individual, among the tribes of the builders. Some have supposed them to be the cemeteries, in which were depos- ited the dead of a tribe or a village, for a certain period, and that the size of the mound is an indication of the num- ber inhumed. Others, that they mark the sites of great battles, and contain the bones of the slain. On all hands the opinion has been entertained, that they were devoted to sepulture alone. This received opinion is not, however, sustained by the investigations set on foot by the writer and his associate. The conclusion to which their observa- tions have led, is, that the mounds were constructed for several grand and dissimilar purposes; or rather, that they are of different classes ;—the conditions upon which the classification is founded being three in number—namely : position, structure, and contents. In this classification, we distinguish—
1st. Those mounds which occur in, or in the immediate vicinity of enclosures, which are stratified, and contain altars of burned clay or stone, and which were places of sacrifice, or in some way connected with religious rites and ceremonies.
2d. Those which stand isolated, or in groups, more or
