MODES OF BURIAL. 



CHAPTER II. 



MODES OF BURIAL PRACTISED BY THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA. 



Stone Graves. 



The ancient race of Tennessee buried their dead in rude stone coffins or cists, 

 constructed of flat pieces of limestone or slaty sandstone which abound in Middle 

 Tennessee. 



Extensive graveyards, in which the stone coffins lie close to each other, are found 

 in Tennessee and Kentucky, along the river-courses, in the valleys, and around the 

 springs. 



A considerable portion of the city of Nashville has been built over an extensive 

 Indian graveyard wliich lay along the valley of Lick Branch. A large number of 

 these graves have been destroyed in the building of North Nashville. In this 

 section of the city I saw a number of tlicm quite exposed during the digging of 

 the cellars of a row of houses, and obtained from them a small stone hatchet and 

 another implement of hard silicious material, beautifully polished. This stone 

 implement is supposed to have been used in the dressing of hides. All around the 

 sulphur spring, traces of the aborigines are manifest in the form of fragments of 

 large pots and various stone implements. It is supposed that the salt lick was 

 frequented by the aborigines for the purpose of killing the buff'alo and deer which 

 resorted there, and also for the manufacture of salt. A number of interesting 

 relics are said to have been found in the banks around the sulphur spring ; and I 

 myself have gathered a large number of fragments of pottery in this locality, and 

 found them to be uniformly composed of a mixture of crushed river shells and 

 clay. Many of these fragments Avere nearly one inch in thickness, with an almost 

 imperceptible convexity indicating that they had once formed parts of very 

 capacious vessels. From the markings upon the exterior they appear to have been 

 moulded in baskets made of split cane. 



An extensive burying-ground lies on the opposite bank of the Cumberland, 

 directly across from the mouth of Lick Branch, surrounding a chain of four 

 mounds. One of these mounds appeared to have been the burying place of a 

 royal family. Two of the smaller ones are thought to have been the general 

 burying-ground of the tribe, whilst the largest one may possibly have been erected 

 as a site for the residence of the chief, or for a temple. In the low alluvial plain, 

 all around these stone graves, are scattered fragments of pottery, arroAv-heads, and 

 other stone implements. The caving of the bluff constantly exposes stone graves, 

 skeletons, and relics of various kinds. 



