Ohio History Journal

Editorialania.                      285

 

mortal enemies. Five of their chief Werowances came aboard us and

crossed the bay in their barge. The picture of the greatest of them is

signified in the mappe.

"The calfe of whose leg was three-quarters of a yard about, and

all of the rest of his limbs so answerable to that proportion that he seemed

the goodliest man we ever beheld. His hayre, the one side was long, the

other close shore, with a ridge over his crown like a cockes comb. His

arrows were five quarters long, headed with the splinters of a white

crystal like stone, in forme of a heart an inch broad and an inch and a

half long or more. These he wore in a wooleves skinne at his back for

a quiver, his bowe in the one hand and his clubbe in the other as is

described."

An evidence which seems to bear out the supposition that the skele-

tons found are of the same tribe was that one of the skulls found had

a large heart-shaped arrow imbedded in it.

At the point on the Choptank where the remains were found there

are steep shelving cliffs of sand and gravel that extend to the water's

edge. Beneath this bank is a layer of marl. The graves are in the sand

a few feet above the hard marl, and have deposits of between twenty and

thirty feet of sand and gravel above them. A peculiar feature of the

discovery is the charred state of the bones of the women and children.

This seems to indicate that the ancient Indians cremated the bodies of all

except their warriors. The wet resting place of the bones for so many

centuries has made them very soft and fragile, and it was with the greatest

difficulty that they were removed.

The work was done under the supervision of Widgeon, who has

done most of the collecting for the Academy for a number of years.

Since his work on the Choptank he has been to the West Indies and made

a splendid collection of several thousand specimens of insects, which Prof.

Uhler has at his home and which he is classifying.

 

 

 

HISTORY OF SERPENT MOUND.

Late in the fall of 1905 the Secretary of the Ohio State Archaeo-

logical and Historical Society at the request of the trustees of the society

prepared a little volume of 125 pages entitled, "THE SERPENT MOUND,

ADAMS COUNTY, OHIO. The mystery of the mound and history of the

serpent. Various theories of the effigy mounds and the mound builders."

This monograph was published by the society in cloth and paper editions

which are sold at prices of 50c and $1.00 for paper and cloth binding

respectively. The author who has made many visits during the past few

years to the mound, has been more and more impressed with its mystery

and significance. Archeologists who have given the matter attention have

pretty generally agreed that it must have been built for purposes of

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286        Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

worship. It may have been the great religious temple of the mound

builders for the Ohio Valley. The book gives a full account of the

rescue of the mound from destruction, by Prof. F. W. Putnam, the

eminent American archaeologist of Cambridge, Mass. Professor Putnam

succeeded in interesting some worthy and philanthropic ladies of Boston

who purchased the property, restored it and presented it to the Peabody

Museum. The latter institution subsequently transferred it to the trus-

tees of Harvard University who in turn (1900) deeded it to the Ohio

State Archaeological and Historical Society under whose care and control

it now remains. This wonderful and awe-inspiring relic of the mound

builders is the greatest of its kind in magnitude and mystery in the

entire territory in which the mound builders of America seemed to have

found field for their strange monuments. In this volume the author

gives not only a complete and accurate description of the serpent but also

the various theories advanced by the leading archaeological writers and

students upon its origin, age and use. A large portion of the volume is

further devoted to the worship of the serpent, perhaps the primal form

of worship in the most primitive stage of nearly every race. The little

volume has met with a most welcome reception not only by students and

scholars but the general reader who is interested in the curious and inex-

plicable. The author has devoted much careful attention to the literature

on the worship of the serpent and has consulted nearly all of the authori-

ties now accessible upon this fascinating subject. The mound was first

described by Squier and Davis in their monumental volume on the mounds

of the Mississippi Valley and which was published about 1848 under the

auspices of the Smithsonian Institute. The monthly publication known

as RECORDS OF THE PAST, published in Washington, D. C., and edited by

Professor G. Frederick Wright and Mr. Frederick Bennett Wright, in its

April number presents a very complete and complimentary review of the

book, reproducing many of its illustrations. In conclusion the reviewer

says: "Much could he written as to the various theories held by differ-

ent people, but a very good idea has been given by Mr. Randall of the

most commonly accepted theory by the persons who have studied the

subject carefully. Altogether this little book is the most authoritative

treatise upon the Serpent Mound of Ohio which we have seen, and we

can confidently recommend it to the circle of readers of the RECORDS OF

THE PAST."

 

 

THE OHIO CANALS.

Another volume issued by the Ohio State Archaeological and His-

torical Society late in the fall of 1905 and which has not yet been noticed

in the pages of the Quarterly is the "HISTORY OF THE OHIO CANALS; their

construction, cost, use and partial abandonement." This volume contain-

ing some 200 pages is the result of the studies of two post-graduate

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