for aged chiefs to retire from chiefdom when they became infirm or forgetful; and it was the privilege of such to bestow titles on whomsoever they might select, with or without the consent of the national council; but in all cases where national consent was obtained, a symbolical mound was erected, which became indicative of the origin of the chief thus honored, by the deposit of a nut or acorn in some part of the monument after its completion. If the chief designated was a legitimate son of the chief who bestowed the title, this nut or acorn was planted in the imaginary loins of the monumental figure; but, if he were illegitimate, it was placed below the loins. If title was conferred upon a grandson, the deposit was made in the breast, that it might take root in the heart. If the party was not immediately related to the family of the chief, the nut or acorn was planted at the head, to indicate his wisdom.

The Coiled Serpent. Scale, 200 feet to the inch.

But the trees which sprung from seed thus planted have all passed away, although traces of their existence are still seen. Every long mound with oval ends had originally two trees standing upon it, as the emblems of war and peace. The latter was usually an evergreen,

-the pine or cedar. To mar the trunk, or break the limbs of this Tree of Peace, was regarded as a formal declaration of war; and to mar or break the trunk of the other, the Tree of War, denoted a cessation of hostilities. At the final ratification of peace, the old trunk was prostrated and a new one planted in its place.

Every nation had one monumental mound at which no other ceremonies than those described were ever observed, and so sacred was the soil of which they were formed, that all game rested unharmed upon them. To stain with the blood of man or beast that soil, incurred the penalty of death. No medicinal herb that grew upon these mounds was suffered to be removed.

Composite Mound.

Many of the Historical mounds are those structures, the shapes of which are a combination of human and animal forms, or those of the human or animal alone. Those of the amalgamated form denote the union of two tribes. Circles and squares seem to be walls within which were the homes of the tribe or tribes by which they were built. Figures of planets were doubtless records of worship and offering, as also totemic names of the builders.

A reference to religious worship is constant in all these structures, as in the pictography. If the mound-structure is that of a colossal man or beast, beside it is the sacrificial mound or altar; and in many cases the ring, which when filled, it being then a full circle, denotes the death of a chief-whose totem is shown by the figures near by-and his translation to the stars.

Upon the vast plains, on the lovely hills and riverbanks, these inscriptions - hieroglyphics of the Indian race are seen. Beneath the canopy of heaven the Indian pictured on the green turf another sky, on which is seen the cross, the star, the crescent, the serpent, the bird, and the sun, guardian divinities of the LenniLenape, the Original People.

Of the pictography of the Indian, Abbé Domenech remarks:

Les Indiens, il est vrai, depuis l'Atlantique jusqu'à l'océan Pacifique, et depuis le Canada, ce pays aux grandes néiges, jusqu'aux plages embaumées de la Floride, sèment avec assez de profusion leurs pensées symbolisées sur les rochers baignés par les lacs et fleuves de leurs sublimes déserts, sur les arbres séculaires de ces forêts immenses qui n'ont encore jamais retenti des bruits de la hache civilisatrice du pionnier, et sur les peaux et l'écorce du bouleau, ce papyrus d'Amerique du Nord, les peaux-rouges, que l'on méprise et que l'on abrutit pour les anéantir, laissent ainsi des traces profondes de leur passage dans les solitudes, des marques de leur piété envers le Créateur, de leurs exploits dans les combats, de leurs souvenirs historiques, de leurs poetiques aspirations, et de leurs mysterieuses croyances; mais ces inscriptions sont courtes, simples, ignorées comme l'existence de ceux qui les ont tracées. .; puis, les rochers se couvrent de mousse ou de limon; la pluie, les torrents, et les tempêtes usent la pierre; les arbres meurent, pourrissent, tombent en poussière, et c'est ainsi que s'effacent peu à peu ces vestiges de l'art idéographique d'une peuple encore dans l'enfance, qui s'étient avant sa virilité.

CHAPTER XIV.

MANABOZHO.

THE first and third of the above symbols have already been mentioned as emblems of Manabozho. It is probable that the central figure, in which the human form is rudely delineated, represents the same deity; yet the crescent-shaped horns, the black triangle, and the serpent, seem to indicate that the figure was that of Atahensic, the divinity of the moon, these three symbols being associated with that goddess. There is a similar uncertainty as to sex in Indian as in Assyrian designs. But another figure like this was given by an Indian as a picture of Manabozho. The Persian depicted his deity of the sun as holding in the right hand a serpent, and having, as in the Indian figure, two arms. The apparently most ancient Indian representation is that of the one-armed deity, seen in the chapter upon Pictography;

to which might be compared the one-handed German sun-god Tyr, whom Grimm identifies with the Sanskrit sun-god.

Manabozho, the higher and ruling deity, called by Dr. Brinton "God of Light," most often appears in the form of a man in ancient legend. It is probable, while attributing to the lower animals similar spiritual powers to his own, the Indian recognized in himself the greater possibilities of higher endowments; and therefore this deity, the god of light, according to Dr. Brinton, was conceived in corresponding higher form. In the kingdoms of nature the animal, the plant, and the mineral there is a struggling tendency to human lineaments

and human attributes. The whole universe implies the human shape as the goal of perfection. Its high office and position were recognized by the Indian; and this god, in his relation to the human race, is rudely represented in that "glorious shape divine." The ethical interest in this conception is from this its human representation.1

2

At an unknown period a great manitto visited the earth, and, becoming enamored with a maiden, made her his wife. From this union were born four sons at a birth, and in ushering them into the world the mother died. The first son was Manabozho, who is the friend of the human race. The second, Chibiabos, who has the care of the dead and presides over the Country of Souls. The third was Wabassa, who immediately fled to the north, where he was transformed into a rabbit, and under that guise became a powerful spirit. The

1 Vide Na-na-bush, the Intercessor, in chapter on Language and Pictography.

2 Dawn, whose four sons were the four spirits, North, East, South, and West, according to Dr. Brinton. Vide "Hero Myths."