576 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
home, buried him with great solemnity, and ever after when they passed 
that way, visited the spot, usually singing a mournful song, and cast- 
ing stones upon it.” * 
Among the tribes of the Algonquin family, as well as among those 
inhabiting the Gulf States, and which, for the sake of convenience, we 
have called the Appalachians, the custom of erecting these stone heaps 
or cairns seems to have been more or less prevalent. Vander Donck 
tells us that the Indians of New Netherlands buried in graves, above 
which ‘they placed a large pile of wood, stone, cr earth,” and around 
this “they placed palisades resembling a small dwelling.”+ In Vir- 
ginia, according to Capt. Smith, the Powhatanie tribes had certain altar 
stones which stand “apart from their temples, some by their houses; 
and others in the woods and wildernesses; where they have had any 
extraordinary accident or encounter. As you travel by them they will 
tell you the cause of the erection, wherein they instruct their chil- 
dren; so that they are instead of records and memorials of their an- 
tiquities.”t In Lawson’s account of his journey through the Carolinas 
he speaks of a “sort of tomb; as where an Indian is slain, in that very 
place they make a heap of stones (or sticks, where stones are not to be 
found); to this memorial every Indian that passes by adds a stone to 
augment the heap, in respect to the deceased hero.”§ The Cherokees, 
as we have seen above, also buried their dead in this same manner; || 
and among the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and tribes belonging to the 
Creek confederacy, with whom Adair lived and traded for so many 
years, it was not unusual, in the woods, ‘ to see innumerable heaps of 
small stones in those places where, according to tradition, some of 
their distinguished people were either killed or buried till their bones 
could be gathered; there they add Pelion to Ossa, still increasing each 
heap, as a lasting monument and honor to them and an incentive to 
great actions.” {| 
Among some of the tribes living to the west of the Mississippi, 
especially those inhabiting portions of the region now known as the 
*J.V.H. Clark, Onondaga, vol. 1, p.52: Syracuse, 1849. Mr, Clark seems to have 
derived his information as to the former customs of the Onondagas from the account 
furnished by La Fort (so he wrote his own name), principal chief of the Onondagas, 
and ‘‘keeper of the council fire of the Six Nations.” who died October 5, 1848. Ma- 
cauley, New York, vol. 01, p. 239, says: ‘Sometimes they raised heaps of stones over 
the bodies of distinguished chiefs,” but he does not give his authority for the state- 
ment. 
+New York Hist. Coll., new series, vol. 1, p. 202. These Indians were Lenni 
Lenape, or, as we call them, Delawares, and their congeners. Except that sand was 
used instead of stones or earth, the Indians of Plymouth, Mass., probably buried in 
much the same manner. See Purchas Pilgrims, vol. 1v, p. 1847, where the same com- 
parison—‘‘ of the grave to an Indian house ”—is used. 
t Purchas Pilgrims, vol. 1v, p. 1702. 
§ History of Carolina, p. 22: London, 1718. 
|| Bartram, Travels, p. 348. Adair, note to p. 185. 
q Hist. of North American Indians, p. 184. 
