The Mound-Builders

Introduction

THE MOUND-BUILDERS INTRODUCTION No sign of habitation meets the eye; Only some ancient furrows I discern And verdant mounds, and from them sadly learn That hereabout men used to live and die. -WILTON. MOUND-BUILDERS! What magic in the very word; what an epitome of all that is romantic and mysterious in human experience! Mere mention of the name suffices to conjure visions of a shadowy race dimly viewed across the ages--come from no one knows whence, gone no one knows whither, or when. Giants in physical stature and legion in numbers; weird rites and long-lost magic arts; populous cities and impressive temples; haughty priests and human sacrifice! Who of the older generation does not recall the thrill imparted by the all too brief references in early textbooks and historical literature to those mysterious denizens of the primeval forest and their no less mysterious mounds? Who of the younger generation, thumbing these musty tomes, is not captivated by the romance lurking in the mellowed woodcut illustrations supplementing the meager text? An intriguing bit of landscape, hill and vale; above, great birds wheeling silently through the azure sky; a ruminative cow, grateful for the noonday shade of the giant elms; a lazily speculative pedestrian, pondering the mysteries of the nearby ancient mound, while "all the air a solemn stillness holds." Fairyland! Who were the Mound-builders? Whence came they, and when? Why did they build mounds? What of their fate? 2 THE MOUND-BUILDERS But do we really wish to know? Isn't fiction, after all, stranger than truth? If the archreologist can translate fancy into fact, should he attempt to do so, knowing full well that only in the unknown and the unexplored are romance and mystery at their best and that the known all too readily becomes the commonplace? The writer has hesitated to assume the task. You may wonder why. From the very dawn days of human intelligence man has been concerned with two sets of phenomena, natural and supernatural . The first he has accepted as a matter of course for the reason that he could see, feel, and understand them-could measure them by the yardstick of ordinary human experience. They were everyday business. The phenomena that would not conform to such analysis were another matter. Man's striving after explanation and understanding of these (to him) supernatural phenomena, particularly as affecting his origin, past life, and future destiny, has resulted in an impressive complex of activities and accomplishments which, taken together, constitute an important part of his ethical culture. As a whole, they may be considered as significant gestures of the finite human mind groping for understanding of the infinite -a declaration that man cannot, or will not, live by bread alone. Those elements of this ingenious complex which have survived to become a part of present-day civilization, through their acceptance as fact, are components of history and religion; in so far as they apply to primitive man, we think of them under the term "mythology." By the time that our Aryan forbears began their migrations from the ancestral home to spread themselves over Europe and the western world, a body of tradition, legend, myth, and ballad had grown up in answer to the age-old queries regarding things unobvious and unknown-the supernatural. Reading the pages of classical Greek and Roman history, we meet with heroes, Harpies, and Hydras; divinities and dryads; Centaurs and Cyclops; Graces and Furies; nymphs and naiads; we consult the Oracle and read the future through divination. Pro- INTRODUCTION 3 ceeding, we find our immediate ancestors, in the British Isles and on the Continent, reveling in witches, goblins, and gnomes; fairies, spirits, and sprites; while not a few giants lurk in the dark places. And along with the colonists came most of these to American shores. They are with us today; but we have taken a forward step, and with more courage than our ancestors we have retained only those which are friendly and helpful and have discarded, for the most part, those which are unfriendly and harmful. Witches are no longer in vogue. And although we continue to associate mythology only with the infancy of the race, we find that just beneath the veneer which is civilization it is still very much in evidence. We realize that this intangible part of our culture complex, although it cannot be measured or weighed, still plays an...