44 ABORIGINAL MONUMENTS
have been noticed. It is conjectured, that the “brick hearths,” of which mention has occasionally been made, were the “altars,” already described as belonging to a cer- tain class of mounds. Nothing is more likely than that some of them were left uncovered by the builders, and subsequently hidden by natural accumulations, to be again exposed by the invading plough, or the recession of the banks of streams. The indentations occasioned by the passage of roots across them, or by other causes, would naturally suggest the notion of rude brick hearths. Remains rounp iy tak Mounps: Implements, Ornaments, Sculptures, §-c.—The condition of the ordinary arts of life, amongst the people which constructed the singular and often imposing monuments we have been contemplating, furnishes a prominent and interesting subject of inquiry. How far the conclusion, already hypothetically advanced, that the vast amount of labor expended upon these works, their number, and the regularity and design which they exhibit, denote a numerous people, considerably advanced from the nomadic, hunter, or radically savage state,—how far this conclusion is sustained by the character of the minor remains, of which we shall now speak, remains to be seen. It has already been remarked that the mounds are the principal depositories of ancient art, and that in them we must seek for the only authentic remains of the builders. In the observance of a practice almost universal among barbarous or semi-civilized nations, the mound-builders deposited various articles of use and ornament with their dead. They also, under the prescriptions of their religion, or in accordance with customs unknown to us, and to which perhaps no direct analogy is afforded by those of any other people, placed upon their altars numerous ornaments and implements,—probably those most valued by their possessors,—which remain there to this day, attesting at once the religious zeal of the depositors, and:their skill in
