172 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. 



which still continues to invite investigation. It is not improbable that many of the 

 dead were burned, and that their ashes were heaped together, constituting mounds. 

 Such an inference may not unreasonably be drawn from certain facts which will 

 be presented when we come to speak of the anomalous or unclassified mounds. 

 It may however be remarked in this connection, that no very distinct traces of the 

 ancient burial-places can be expected to be found. If, from the mounds where, 

 from their protection from the action of moisture and other decomposing causes, 

 the enclosed remains would be most likely to be well preserved, it is found almost 

 impossible to recover a single entire bone, it is not to be wondered at that the 

 remains of the common dead are now neai'ly or quite undistinguishable from the 

 mould which surrounds them. The apparent absence therefore of any general 

 cemeteries of the era of the moimds, may be regai'ded as another and strong 

 evidence of the remote antiquity of the monuments of the West. 



It should be remarked before proceeding further, that the position of the mound- 

 skeletons, in respect to the east or any other point of the compass, is never fixed. 

 They are nearly always found disposed at length, with their arms carefully adjusted 

 at their sides. None have been discovered in a sitting posture, except among the 

 recent deposits ; and, even among these, no uniformity exists : some are extended 

 at length, others lie upon their sides bent nearly double, others still in a sitting 

 posture ; and in a few cases it seems that the bones, after the decomposition of the 

 flesh, had been rudely huddled together in a narrow grave.* 



* Tlie North American Indians, in tbeir burials by inhumation, very generally placed the body in a 

 sitting posture. Their customs of burial were, however, extremely variant. Some of the tiibes to tlii.s 

 day, after enveloping the bodies of their dead, place them on scaffolds or in the forks of trees. Among 

 some of the Southern Indians, they were exposed until the flesh parted from the bones, which were then 

 gathered with various ceremonies and deposited in the huts of the relatives, the temples of the tribe, 

 " the medicine house," or in buildings specially dedicated to the purpose. The Mexicans, in cases where 

 burial by inhumation was practised, placed their dead in a sitting position : so too did the Central Ameri- 

 cans and Peruvians, as is sufficiently evidenced by an examination of their tombs. It is a great mistake, 

 liowever, to suppose that the custom was anything like universal either among the ancient inhabitants or 

 more recent tribes. 



