ELISIIA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 47 



pipes, some of them of fine workmanship, with pieces of about 

 twenty others, cut mica, black and red paint shaped in acorn hulls, 

 pieces of native black lead, and many otiier stone implements of 

 various shapes and designs, showing the veneration and esteem in 

 which this " Chief " of the forest was held by those that loved him 

 if such expressions can be applied to the savages of that day. 



To the east of the burials described, though only a few feet dis- 

 tant, a cruel barbarity of the Indians was unearthed. There were 

 two graves of the same kind, and a description of one will do to 

 represent both, for they were near each other and probably buried 

 at the same time. One skeleton immediately above the other, the 

 upper skeleton had a large frame and was buried with the face 

 down, the other, the skeleton of a smaller person, lying on the bot- 

 tom of the excavatien, with arms and legs extended, and securely 

 fastened by placing large stones on each extremity — certainly buried 

 alive, so that they could travel to the happy hunting grounds to- 

 gether. 



The other burials in the same mound were insignificant in com- 

 parison, and are scarcely worth a description. 



The bones of thes: skeletons could be traced to the finger ends, 

 by careful manipulation, in the dark river sand in which they were 

 buried, but would crumble to pieces on being exposed to the air in 

 a few moments. 



I might suggest by way of conjecture that the copper composing 

 the ornaments was probably brought from the Lake (Superior mines, 

 the shells from the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean, the mica 

 from the ancient tunnels, found in excavating the hills of Mitchell 

 county, the iron manufactured in some mysterious way by the In- 

 dians from the splendid magnetic ore found in great abundance 

 within a mila of this mound, but this would be conjecture. I leave 

 this part of the subject to the gentlemen who have the collection in 

 charge at the Smithsonian Institution, where these relics of antiq- 

 uity have been placed on exhibition. 



1 intend giving a further description of other interesting mounds 

 found in the same locality. 



J. M. SPAINHOUR. 



Lenoir, N. 6'., May Sth, 1886. 



