The precise objects aimed at in the construction of the remarkable series of American earthworks here referred to must obviously be difficult to determine with certainty. Analogies to these structures have been traced in the works of Indian tribes formerly in occupation of Carolina and Georgia. They were accustomed to erect a circular terrace or platform on which their council-house stood. In front of this, a quadrangular area was enclosed with earthen embankments, within which public games were played and captives tortured. To this was sometimes added a square or quadrangular terrace at the opposite end of the enclosure. Upon the circular platform it is also affirmed that the sacred fire was maintained by the Creek Indians, as part of their most cherished rites as worshippers of the sun. But even the evidence, thus far, is vague and unsatisfactory; and any recognisable analogies point, at best, only to the possibility of some of the Indian tribes having perpetuated on a greatly inferior scale some maimed rites borrowed from their civilised precursors. The scale upon which the Southern Indian earthworks were constructed may compare with those of the Iroquois in the State of New York, but in no degree approximates to the erections of the Mound-Builders. What, for example, shall we make of the graded ways, such as that of Piketon, Ohio, where an approach has been laboriously formed from one terrace to another, one thousand and eighty feet long by two hundred and fifteen feet in greatest width? The excavated earth has been employed, in part, to construct lofty embankments on each side of the ascent, which are now covered with trees of large size. Beyond this approach, mounds and half-obliterated earthworks indicate that it was only part of an extensive series of structures. But, viewed alone, it is one of the most remarkable monuments of prehistoric times to be found on the whole continent, and certainly bears not the slightest resemblance, either in its character or the great scale on which it is executed, to any known work of the Red Indians.
[83] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, pp. 26-29, plate x.
[84] _Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley_, p. 48.