forest one or two hundred yards in width. This village — containing from ten to fifteen thousand inhabitants — was oval in form, and strongly fortified by a double ditch and loopholed earthwork, the whole being surrounded by a palisade.

The top of every tree in this palisade was crowned with a human skull. Six gateways defended the village; and, after passing through each gate, it was necessary to traverse a tunnel, some thirty yards long, made out of piles of large timber, and loopholed throughout its whole length. On the top of this tunnel was a guardhouse, the floor of which was honeycombed into holes, through which the guard above could spear an unsuspecting passenger on the road below. The approach to each of these six gates was ornamented by a pavement of human skulls, the bregma being the only part that showed above the ground.