574 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



surface of tlie ground, or in shallow saucer-like depressions, iu a sit- 

 ting or doubled-up posture ; or the dry bones, after decomi)osition of 

 the Hesh, had been gathered ia bundles and placed on the ground in 

 piles, and the earth heaped over them in a conical mound of greater or 

 less magnitude. But in some, judging from the better state of preser- 

 vation of the inclosed remains to be of most recent construction, a dif- 

 ferent arrangement is observed. The bnried skeletons are found on the 

 surface of the ground, but laid at full length on their backs, and sur- 

 rounded or inclosed with thin broad stones or sheets of bituminous 

 shale, stuck into the ground upright, and probably at the time of inter- 

 ment covered over with poles or bark before the earth was thrown on. 

 This change in disposing of the corpse for burial was, in my opinion, a 

 consequent innovation of the first contact with Europeans; and we 

 have convincing reasons for believing that the old practice of burning 

 the dead above ground in mounds of earth or stone prevailed generally 

 among our Indians down to their acquaintance with the whites. Here, 

 as elsewhere, we oc(5asioually find the remains of Indians extended full 

 length in graves below the surface of the ground, unmarked by mound 

 or monument of any kind. These comparatively modern graves, copied 

 after those of the white intruders, are, like the mounds, invariably on 

 the high lands ; and in manj^ instances the crumbling chalk-like bones 

 •can only be identified as belonging to the red race by the implements 

 of stone or shell ornaments associated with them. 



Upon the open prairies of Cass County neither mounds nor graves of 

 the pre-historic dead are ever found, and but few of their relics except- 

 ing flint weapons of the chase. The Indians no doubt hunted the deer 

 and buffalo and elk on our prairies, but neither lived nor buried their 

 dead there. Their camping-grounds and villages were in the groves 

 along the streams and near springs, and they located their cemeteries 

 upon the adjacent bluifs. 



The southern line of this country in its entire length coincides very 

 nearly with a small stream, called Indian Creek, which drains the prai- 

 ries of a portion of Sangamon County, and, running almost directly 

 ■west, joins the Illinois ten miles below Beardstown. This creek, too, 

 was the resort of the hunter tribes, and along its banks are still traces 

 of many of their camps and relics of their home life ; and on the hills 

 overlooking its valley are the low mound graves of their dead. On a 

 high terrace sloping down to the water of this little stream I discovered, 

 some time ago, the location of an ancient workshop for the manufacture 

 of flint implements. The ground for a considerable space was littered 

 with chips and nodules of flint and broken and unfinished arrow and 

 spear points; and scattered here and there were several water-worn 

 bowlders of granite and greenstone, brought from the drift clay of the 

 hills for use by the early artisans as anvils. In this debris a beautiful 

 polished celt of hematite and a few complete flint weapons have been 

 recovered, together with bone punches and awls, and quantities of 



