MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 579 



of human bodies ; or that the remains of a great number of individuals 

 had at one time been consumed until, with the three last victims, the 

 fire was suddenly extinguished by heaping over the seething mass the 

 earth that was to keep the story for the coming of another race. We 

 are warranted in believing that all tribes of Indians inhabiting this 

 great valley, from the remotest times, executed by burning certain cap- 

 tives taken in battle 5 but we have no evidence that dish-shaped plat- 

 forms of stone were constructed especially for that purpose. The 

 simpler method of securing the doomed wretch to a stake or tree and 

 there slowly roasting him amidst the wild jeers and exultations of the 

 captors is far more consonant with well-known Indian nature and 

 usages. But for the absence of collateral testimony the hypothesis that 

 so-called "altars" of this class were made for the purpose of incinerating, 

 at stated i^eriods, the remains of the dead of the entire tribe, collected 

 for such disposal from tree-scafiblds or bone-houses, would present many 

 elements of plausibility. It is possible that a single tribe may have so 

 cremated the skeletons of their deceased kinsmen before making their 

 voluntary or compulsory exodus from this locality j but observed facts 

 fail to sustain the idea that such a mortuary custom prevailed here 

 generally at any time or among any peojile. We have the authority of 

 La Hontau that the Indians of the Lower Mississippi "burnt their dead, 

 keeping the bodies until they had accumulated" sufficiently in num- 

 bers for the grand ceremony, which was performed in certain places 

 remote from their villages. But Du Pratz, whose opportunities for 

 observation and sources of information were equal if not superior to his, 

 positively asserts that " none of the nations of Louisiana were acquainted 

 with the custom of burning their dead." Had this custom been in vogue 

 to any considerable extent or for any considerable period of time it is 

 plain that cinerary altars would be numerous and sepulchral mounds . 

 exceptional. In Cass County and the State of Illinois, so far as my 

 knowledge extends, this strange monument is unique and without par- 

 allel among thousands of Indian mound-graves, a mystic expression, it 

 may be, of religious fervor or superstitious frenzy. 



The intrinsic evidence of many prehistoric remains of this county 

 sustains their claim to extreme antiquity, but no work or specimen of 

 art of a former race has yet been found here above the capacity or 

 achievement of the typical ISTorth American Indian. And in studying 

 the life, habits, and burial customs indicated by these relics, I can see 

 no necessity for ascribing them to the agency of a distinct or superior 

 race, when they express so unmistakably the known status of Indian 

 intellect. 



