last is a modern name, as the removal of the tribe to Nebraska occurred about thirty years ago.

The Biloxi Indians of Louisiana call the north wind, Khû-nû-mí; the north (quarter), Khû'nû-mi wá-de, Toward the North wind. The east is I-kû-nûku wá-e, Towards changing weather, so called because rain is brought to Lecompte, Louisiana (the town near the Biloxi habitat) by the south wind. The west is, I-ta-dú-ye or I-ta-dú-ye wá-de, Towards sunset. The north-east is. Na-tshí pso-hú-ye, Corner of the cloud, but why it is so called, could not be ascertained. Names for south-east, south-west, and north-west are not used by the Biloxi.

The Dakota or Sioux Indians call the east, Wi-yo-hi-yan-pa or Wi-yo-hiyan-pa-ta, Where the sun rises; the south, O-kakh or O-ka-gha (in the Santee dialect), that is, Down-stream:* the west, Wi-yo-khpe-ya-ta, Where the sun sets; and the north is Wa-zi-ya-ta. admitting of two interpretations: 1. Towards the Pines(wazi), or 2. Towards the Waziya or winter spirit (who dwells in the far north), This Waziya is the enemy of another spirit, I-to-ka-gha, whose abode is in the quarter named after himself.

In the treatment of this subject it is important to consider for a few moments the cuts and symbolism of the winds and quarters. The number four appears very often, not only in the myths, but even in the religious ceremonies of many tribes, and attention should be given to the orientation of dwellings and tribal circles. Four enters into all mystic numbers: thus we have four plus three (seven.) and four times three, (twelve.) four, seven and twelve, being regarded as mystic numbers by the same tribes.

Among the Dakotas, the god of war and the four quarters is called. Ta-ku shkan-shkan, something that moves. He is supposed to live in the four winds, and the four black spirits of night do his bidding. Miss A. C. Fletcher has given a very interesting account of "The Religious Ceremony of the Four Winds or Quarters as observed by the Santee Sioux,"-"Among the Saente Sioux Indians the Four Winds are symbolized by a raven and a small black stone less than a hen's in size. An intelligent Santee said to me: The worship of the Four Winds is the most difficult to explain, for it is the most compli cated... The Four Winds are sent by Something that Moves... There is a Something that Moves at each of tho four directions or quarters.. These four quarters are spoken of as upholding the earth.†

"My informant went on to tell me that the spirits of the four winds were not one, but twelve, and that they are spoken of as twelve."‡

*Dr. S. R. Riggs says, in his Dakota dictionary, "Streams in the Dakota county flow southward."

†Geikie, in his "Hours with the Bible" (New York: James Pott, 1881), Vol. I, p. 55, has the following quotation from Das Buch Henoch, edited by Dillman, Kap. 17. 18: "And I saw the cornerstone of the earth and the four winds which bear up the earth, and the firmament of the heaven."

#Report Peabody Museum, Vol. III. p. 289, and note 1 on that page. The use of the number twelve in connection with the ceremony of the four winds finds a counterpart in the initiation of an Osage female into the secret society of seven degrees still existing in her tribe. On such an occasion the female is rubbed from head to foot, thrice in front, thrice on each side, and thrice behind, twelve times in all, with cedar needles, the latter symbolizing the tree of life.

The four primary winds and their respective quarters are symbolized among the Dakota by what Miss A. C. Fletcher calls the U-ma-ne." She describes it as "the square or oblong, with four lines standing out, which is invariably interpreted to mean the earth or land with the four winds standing toward it. The cross, whether diag onal or upright. always symbolizes the four winds or four quarters."?

The "Umane" Symbol.

The raising of the pole used in a Dakota sun dance appears to be symbolic of the four winds or the four quarters of the heavens. The men raise it a short distance from the ground, and then stop and shout: after resting awhile, they lift it a little higher, and shout again: resting a second time, they renew their efforts, raising the pole still higher. but not till they have made the fourth attempt is the pole raised perpendicularly.

According to the testimony of the In-ke Sa-be, or Black Shoulder, a buffalo gens of the Omaha tribe, the ancestral animals found the east and south winds bad ones, but the north and west winds they regarded as good. On the other hand, an Iowa man told the late William Hamilton, his missionary, that the south wind was a beneficent one, the evil one being the northwest wind. This variation may be caused by a difference in the habitats of the tribes referred to. Among the Kansa or Kaw and the Winnebago, Indian lodges were constructed with entrances facing the east. And in a Winnebago tradition. Ma un na or Earth Maker is spoken of as creating this world while sitting upon a small piece of ground and facing the east. When the Winnebago informant was asked why the God faced the east. he replied. "The east is the source of all light and knowledge." The opening of the Omaha tribal circle was represented as faring the east, that is a mystic or hypothetical east. The actual direction faced depending upon the direction in which the people were journeying.

The Tsi-shu man of the Osage tribe consecrated each mystic fireplace by placing four sticks in the form of a cross, beginning with the stick at the west (corresponding to the left side of the tribal circle, where the gens camped), and then laying the sticks at the north, east and south, respectively. But the old man or priest of the Panh-ka gens of the same tribe, being a member of a gens camping on the right side of the tribal circle, began with the stick on his right on the east, and then laid the sticks at the south. west and north, respectively. Here comes up several questions: Of what wood was each stick which was thus employed? Was each stick of a different kind of wood? As the Osage name for the north wind is Wind towards the Pines, was the stick placed at the north a pine stick? The author hopes to find the correct replies to these queries during the coming winter, as he expects to spend some time among the Kwapa or Quapaws. For more detailed of what he has written concerning orientation and the symbolism of the four quarters he must refer the reader to an article in the American Naturalist for February, 1884. entitled, "An Account of the War Customs of the Osages," and his article entitled, "A Study of Siouan Cults," in the 11th Annual report of the Bureau of Ethnology.

$Miss Fletcher, in Rept. Peabody Muscum. Vel. III, p. 284, note.

ABORIGINES.

[BY GERARD FOWKE.]

OR nearly a century now, travelers have recorded their observations of the structures pertaining to the former inhabitants of the Mississippi Valley, and desultory notices of them may be found at even an earlier date; for the Trappists long ago established a monastery on the largest of the famous Cahokia Mounds opposite St. Louis, which for this reason was at one time known as "Monks' Mound," although this name has been replaced by the one so much more appropriate.

At first, all these structures were attributed to the Indian tribes who then inhabited the region where the works occur, or to their immediate predecessors: at any rate there was as yet no thought of traveling down the misty corridors of antiquity in search of some other and "widely different" people to hold accountable for their construction. Some fifty years ago, however, E. G. Squier, who had removed from New York to Chillicothe, Ohio, in conjunction with Dr. Davis located near there, devoted about three years time to the examination of the earthworks and excavation of the mounds of which more than five hundred existed in the county. They also extended their researches over other portions of Ohio and used liberally the contributions of correspondents in various parts of the Mississippi Valley. Finally the results of their investigations were given to the public by the Smithsonian Institution in a large volume which came as a revelation to students and intelligent men everywhere, who were mostly ignorant, or at best had heard, vaguely, of the wonderful remains now for the first time minutely described.

Just here began the misconceptions and erroneous beliefs which have become so firmly implanted in the minds of nearly all persons who are interested in the science but have not been in position to investigate carefully the s'atements upon which their beliefs are based. The authors in question give numerous measurements, along with many plates and figures, purporting to be the result of actual personal observations. But their correctness has been successfully impeached in nearly every instance where surveys have been carefully made with accurate instruments. Indeed, there are numerous instances in which their own statements are contradictory, notably where they give the diameter of an enclosure, wrongfully said to be a perfect circle, as eight hundred feet, and yet claim to have laid off within it a regular dodecagon with a primeter of thirty-six hundred feet! Moreover, all their lines are a certain number of feet in length: enclosures contain exact acres: angles are turned off only in degrees. This would be impossible. unless the builders of these works had the same system of mensuration that is in use among oursolves. Further, it is stated that regular geometric figures are the rule; that there are perfect circles, squares and octagons, and evidences of considerable astronomical knowledge in the manner in which these are laid out relative to the cardinal points. Such assertions are not true in a single instance: none of the enclosures require for their construction a degree of mathematical

ability beyond that of any person of ordinary powers of observation. Even in minor matters of detail, as in the accounts of mounds opened, subsequent explorations have shown them to be inaccurate. Withal there is apparent an honesty of purpose, a simplicity of style, which plainly show a desire to represent matters as they appeared to the investigators. There is no striving for effect, no desire for notoriety; if there had been, their volume could never have secured such reputation. Their mistakes are not due to intentional deception, but to errors of judgement. They plainly did not realize the importance of the work they had undertaken, nor did they dream of the value which their report was to gain in after years. For these reasons, while great credit is due them on account of their arduous labors for which they never received any adequate return, and for having brought to the knowledge of the world much that would otherwise have perhaps remained unknown, their work has to a considerable extent been responsible for many stumbling blocks in the pathway of the modern archæologist.

And yet Squier and Davis are less at fault than are many succeeding authors who carry to an unauthorized extent the fanciful conceptions that have seemed the logical outcome of alleged measurements and resemblance among aboriginal remains. The exactness with which square or circular enclosures were said to be laid off was considered abundant proof of the use of mathematical instruments and knowledge of calculations based on their use. Their purpose being beyond the reach of ordinary imagination, the conclusion was soon reached that they were intended solely for religious exercises. No explanation has ever been vouchsafed as to the kind of ceremonies that would require for their performance areas of twenty, thirty or even seventy acres in extent and even then sometimes connected with others of a similar size by passages perhaps more than a mile in length and concealed from curious eyes by walls of earth. palisades and wooden roofs fifty to two hundred feet wide. We find among the most primitive races ceremonies and sacrifices of personal comfort due to a sense of religious duty and some of the grandest architectural achievements of human intellect owe their accomplishment to the same feeling; but we nowhere find in the records of travelers in any age or country that races or tribes, whose mental abilities are so limited they can give no greater outward expression to their highest feelings than by piling up heaps of earth, whether symmetrical or not, have possessed so comprehensive and connected a system of religious ideas as would lead to the construction of immense and elaborate works for their observance, to the exclusion of similar or equal structures for the requirements of social or military needs.

The mounds, also, have had attributed to them uses and motives for building that do not appear justified by facts. Nearly all that have been opened contain human remains, or in case of low or flat mounds where the percolation of rain or surface water would destroy all osseous remains, the arrangement and character of specimens found indicate the interment of bodies all traces of which have disappeared. There are a few whose internal structure and the absence from them of artificial objects leave us in the dark as to their purpose. Some of these, notably the larger ones with flat tops, were obviously intended to be surmounted by buildings of some description. but the term "temple mound" as applied to such is not altogether warranted, for other buildings such as dwellings for the chiefs, assembly rooms or council houses

for deliberative purposes, or even store houses for grain and other provisions were thus elevated above the common level among tribes historically known; and we cannot suppose, without some basis beyond mere assumption for the opinion, that the Mound Builders had no structures of this sort. It is not intended to deny that superstitious beliefs may have exercised a commanding influence upon the tribes to which such works owe their existence; but to predicate these motives simply because such monuments may have been erected on account of them is certainly illogical.

"Signal Mounds” or “Mounds of Observation” are favorite appellations for conical piles on hill-tops. The position of these is opposed to their implied use, rather than confirmatory of it. Head lands and high peaks have always been favored burial spots among Indians, even until the present generation; and human remains are of such common occurrence in mounds thus situated as to warrant the statement they are simply tumuli. Besides, it is unreasonable to think that, on a point dominating the surrounding region for many miles, a heap of earth would be placed merely to raise a signal fire a few feet higher when no possible advantage could be derived from so doing, or to enable a sentry to elevate himself to the same extent when his horizon was already far beyond the limit at which he could discern a moving object.

Hence, whatever the object of the large enclosures (those of a few yards or rods in diameter were probably the sites of roofed buildings), the question of their being in any wise "sacred" in their nature must be abandoned; and as to such mounds as are not plainly for mortuary purposes it can only be said they may have been substructures for buildings of some sort, though not necessarily of a religious character-or else were for some unknown use which can only be guessed at in the absence of a definite knowledge of the Mound Builders' beliefs and ruling motives of action.

Equally erroneous with the popular idea of the uses of these structures, is the prevalent opinion that all such remains, wherever found, are the work of one race or people. With this supposition as a back-ground, there has been pictured out a dense population of busy people living in harmony under a set of fixed laws, despotic or beneficent, as may seem to the author best adapted for bringing about such happy conditions-tilling the soil, paying tribute, assembling periodically for adoration to a Great Spirit, homage to rulers, national games or religious festivals-owning and occupying the whole country from the Alleghanies to the Great Plains, from the Gulf to the Lakes, digging mica in the east, mining copper in the north, diving for shells and pearls in the south, gathering obsidian or agates in the west, working flint quarries in various parts of the Mississippi Valley, practicing unknown and unknowable rites in the Scioto and Kanawha Valleys, animal fetichism in the northwest, sun worship farther south, far advanced in civilized arts, with priest-hood, aristocracy, well-developed manufactures of fictile and textile art, and all this wondrous, complex state of affairs evolved from piles of earth that demanded only ordinary sighting and easily contrived measuring apparatus to originate, with patience and brute strength to execute, aided by the excavation from tumuli of articles ecstatically proclaimed to be equal in handiwork to those made by the potters, sculptors and lapidaries of a high civilization!

Not only are remains of one particular class confined as a rule, to one cer