MODES OP BURIAL. 13 



In a subsequent letter Mr. Snodgrass states that " all the graves examined mside 

 of a certain entrenchment are much smaller than those immediately outside. Those 

 inside are about eighteen inches square, those outside are eighteen inches by thirty 

 inches; in all, the dead are buried in the same position." 



I examined carefully the bones from the small graves near Sparta, sent me by 

 Mr. Snodgrass, and found tliem to be the remains of infants and children during 

 the period of dentition. The age of the individuals to whom the remains had 

 belonged was absolutely demonstrated by the existence of two sets of teeth, the 

 first and the permanent, both in the upper and the lower jaw-bones. 



The shell ornaments lying upon the breasts were similar in all respects to those 

 from other parts of Tennessee, having the figure of the sun carved upon them. 

 The pottery was composed of the same materials (crushed river sliells and clay) as 

 the vases exhumed from the stone graves and mounds at Nashville, Franklin, Old 

 Town, and many other places. 



It was evident, from all the testimony that I could gather, that the graves around 

 Sparta, which had furnislied Haywood with the materials for the construction of 

 his romance of tlie tancient race of pigmies, inclosed the remains of individuals of 

 all ages from infancy upwards, and that wliilst the infants or children were fre- 

 quently buried in groups apart from the graves of the adults, there was nothing 

 peculiar about their organic remains. The fact that the large and small graves in 

 some cemeteries are intermin<;lcd, and that both varieties occur all thronsh this 

 section of country, without any apparent division into distinct districts, sustains the 

 view that all the stone graves were constructed by the same people, who were large 

 and well formed, and tliat the hypothesis of the existence of a race of pigmies in 

 Tennessee in ancient times is a mere figment of the imagination. 



As far as our knowledge extends, the mode of burial in carefully constructed 

 stone cofiins, practised by the aborigines of Tennessee, was difi'ercnt from that 

 in use among many Indian tribes of the present day ; and an inquiry into the 

 different modes of sepulture, practised by the aborigines of America, is of import- 

 ance in its bearing upon the history of the former inhabitants of -Tennessee. 



At the time of the invasion of De Soto, more than three centuries ago, certain 

 tribes or nations of the Southern Indians are described as inclosing the remains of 

 the dead in coffins, in which were placed pearls, shell ornaments, and idols ; and 

 these coffins Avere deposited in special cemeteries and temples. 



Hernando De Soto, Luis Fernandez De Bimeda, the (jentJeman of Elvas, and the 

 Inca, Garcilasso De la Vega, have recorded the singular history of the Christian, 

 John Ortiz, avIio came to Florida Avitli Pamphilo de Narvaez, and was captured by 

 the Indian Chief Ucita and held in captivity for twelve years, until released by 

 De Soto. The life of John Ortiz, who had been condemned by Ucita to be bound 

 hand and foot, upon a raft erected upon four stakes, and burned to death, was saved, 

 like that of the celebrated John Smith, the founder of Virginia, by tlie earnest 

 intercessions of the dauglitcr of the Indian King. Jolni Ortiz was placed in 

 charge of the temple or burial mound to keep away the wolves, which often carried 

 away the corpses from the coffins. The bodies of the dead were said to have been 

 deposited in wooden boxes covered with boards, without any fastening except a stone 



