days, wore the evident phase of decline. High places, groves, images, Baal, and the Hosts of Heaven, comprehend four or five ever present articles of faith; it may be useful not to be forgotten, and which were generally associated together.

The altars were on the high places, the groves were places of concealment, and planted near the mounds. The groves were sometimes artificial productions, and sometimes they were living trees. The graven images were phallic, orphic, and celestial emblems that held close companionship with the grave. All were presided over by Balaam Gods. Baal and Baal-zeon were like Cupid of the Greeks, gods of love and of hymeneal rites.

When the phallic cultus faded away, its attendant paraphernalia went with it, except those high places. Some of them were removed, but many were extensive, enduring works, and remained; or, as the text has it, "the high places were not taken away.

There is reason to believe the shell mound in Oakland, California, is a relic of an old superstition. One reason for so believing, is its antiquity and its exterior technical character. There are phallic emblems, and celestial emblems which have been exhumed from this and similar places.

These signs appear to have been as much parts of the tumulus, as modern cooking utensils are parts of our dwellings, and indicate the purpose for which it was erected. The reader will see below an indigenous crescent image carved in stone, which is in the cabinet collection of the State University, Berkely, California. It is two inches wide and eight inches from point to point.

Stone Crescent from Alameda Co., Cal.

From the shape of the specimen, we gather the idea that the moon was an object of worship, and that the tumulus was erected with some such object in view. The relic was not found in the pyramid, but was exhumed from a mound in the vicinity. The fact that such relics are numerous on this coast, has led to this interpretation. We associate the crescent relics with the older and more elaborate works, and conclude that the same kinds of worship prevailed here, which history informes us were common in Oriental countries.

GAMBLING AMONGST THE PIEGANS.

Editor American Antiquarian:

The Piegans are a tribe of the great Blackfeet nation, now living on reserves in the northern part of Montana, and in the vicinity of Fort Macleod, Alberta.

On Sunday, the 7th day of October, '83, I witnessed a very peculiar game, participated in by a number of Piegan braves, at Fort Macleod. The game was as follows:

A suitable piece of level ground was chosen, and the braves, some fifteen or twenty, prepared for the game. Two boards were set on edge parallel to each other, and about twelve feet apart. Two long bladed arrows were then chosen-next a heavy ring about four inches in diameter was produced. ring was either of stone or metal. It was covered with buckskin, and a number of strings of various colored beads were stretched across the inside like diameters of a circle. Now every thing was ready, and two young braves signified their intention to start the game. Each took one of the arrows and one the ring. They stood side by side at one board, facing the other board. The ring being rolled swiftly in front, so as to strike the other board and rebound, falling on its side. The braves, following the ring, threw the arrows with a peculiar underhand swing of the arm, so that the arrows would strike the ground and remain where the throwers judged the ring would fall. Previously they had determined on a particular bead. Now, the thrower of the arrow whose tip was nearest to this particular bead, took the stakes. Then two more players would step in and the game kept up for hours. Two umpires were stationed at each board and they ruled the game. But in the case of a close point the crowd gave the decision, the players saying nothing. The players played for a certain number of points or just one trial. The general score was best two out of three. They, the players, staked their money, ornaments, blankets, etc., and when these gave out, their horses and guns. It is said that they will stake their squaws and children. Though I have often witnessed the game, I have never seen that, but I have known them to sell their squaws and children when hard pressed for food. This is one of their worst games for gambling. They get very noisy and excited. Others, beside the players, are permitted to bet, and there are regular stake holders, everything being carried on most honorably. White men are poor hands at this game; the alertness of the eye in judging the distances being natural to the Indian.

G. E. LAIDLAW, Toronto, Ont.

EDITORIAL.

ANIMAL EFFIGIES AND NATIVE SYMBOLISM COMPARED.

One of the most interesting problems brought before the American Archæologist, is that which comes from the study of animal effigies and native symbols. 1. The effigies have great interest, if for no other reason than for this, that they reveal what animals once abounded here, the mounds and earthworks frequently preserving the images of these animals as correctly as if they were carved in wood, or preserved in sculptured monuments. 2. They help us to understand something of that remarkable totem system, which found its fullest embodiment among the various tribes of this continent. 3. The most im

Cross Section

B

Fig. 121.

Turtle-shaped Mound in Florida.

portant point of all, however, is that in the animal effigies and other symbols, many think they discover traces of the migration of these tribes from other continents. This is a favorite theme with the European Archæologists, but the solution of it in all probablility will come from American students.

I. We shall first consider the animal effigies in connection with their geographical distribution.

We present, with this number, a cut of a mound in Florida. The description of the mound may be found in the Smithsonian Report for 1879. It was furnished by S. T. Walker, whose name has occasionally appeared in this journal. The cut has been kindly loaned by Prof. S. F. Baird. The mound is situated on a narrow island called Long Key. Mr. Walker says: "It is not without some hesitation that I attribute to this mound a turtle shape, as such an occurrence among the

mounds in this part of Florida is an anomaly. Whether the shape depicted was the result of deliberate design on the part of the builders or the accidental result of irregular ditching, I cannot say. The mound proper consists of a structure of sand 108 feet long and sixty-six feet wide. It is about five feet high at a point marked A in the figure. This constitutes the body, or carapace, and tail of the supposed turtle. The ditches a a a are distinct and leave the flippers B B and the head C at the natural level of the land. The view in section Fig. 121, will convey an idea of what I mean. A being the mound and B B the ditches, leaving the flippers as before stated. In other words, the flippers are not the result of heaping up sand, their shapes being given by the ditches. Whether the design was to give the form of a turtle or not, the result was precisely the same, the whole structure having a wonderful resemblance to that animal. It is not at all improbable that the ancient architects had that form in view in the construction of this mound, as the beaches on this island are still the resort of hundreds of turtles, which come up to lay their eggs in the sand during the summer, and successful turtle fisheries are now carried on in Boca Ciega Bay, immediately opposite this point."

We call attention to this mound because it indicates that animal effigies were more numerous and wide-spread than we have been accustomed to suppose. This point has been shown by the explorations of Mr. W. T. Lewis, in Minnesota, by Hon. C. C. Jones, in Georgia, by Mr. Evans, in Iowa, and various gentlemen in Ohio. Mr. Lewis writes to Science, Feb. 13, as follows: "The effigies surveyed by myself are, twentyfive in Minnesota, one in Iowa, ninety-six in Wisconsin. Among the effigies in Minnesota, are a frog, and a bird effigy at La Crescent, also two bird effigies and a quadruped, on the Root River, near Hokah, and a fish effigy near the village of Dakota, on the same river. The fish is 110 feet long." It is represented as having fins and a doubly divided tail. Mr. C. C. Jones, in the Smithsonian Report for 1877, describes two bird mounds in Georgia. One of these is near Eatonton, Putnam county, crowning a high ridge overlooking the little Grady creek. "It is composed entirely of boulders of white quartz rock, gathered from the adjacent territory. The boulders were carefully piled together, and the interstices were filled with smaller fragments of milk quartz. Into the composition of the structure enters neither earth nor clay. This stone mound represents an eagle lying upon its back with extended wings. (See Fig. 122.)

In the construction of the tumulus, respect was had to the object imitated, the height of the tumulus, at the breast of the bird being between seven and eight feet, its altitude thence decreasing toward the head and beak, where it is not more

than two and one-half feet high, and also toward the extremity of the wings and tail, where it has an elevation of scarcely two feet. The beak is slightly aquiline, and the tail is indented. Measured from the top of the head to the extremity of the tail this structure is 102 feet long. From tip to tip of the wings, measured across the body, we have a distance of 120 feet. The greatest expanse of tail is 38 feet, the same as the lateral diameter of the body. The proportions of the neck, head, wings and tail are cleverly preserved. About a mile and a half from Lawrence Ferry, on the Oconee river, and situated on a stony ridge near the main road, on the planta

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Fig. 122.

Bird-shaped Mound in Georgia,

tion of Mr. Kilichen D. Little, in Putnam county, is another of these bird-shaped mounds. Like the former, it is composed wholly of boulders and white quartz rock, collected from the hill on which it stands. Its dimensions do not materially differ from these of the tumulus on the Scott place. The tail, however, is bifurcated. The head of the bird lies to the southeast, and its wings are extended in the direction of the northeast and southwest. The entire length of the structure from the crown of the head to the end of the tail is 182 feet and three inches. For a distance of twelve feet the tail is bifurcated, and just above the part of bifurcation it is twelve feet