118 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
to skeletons which were buried in different parts of it. It was not until this pile of earth 
was removed and the original surface exposed to view that a probable conjecture of its 
original design could be formed. About 20 feet square of the surface had been leveled 
and covered with bark. On the center of this lay a human skeleton, over which had 
been spread a mat manufactured either from weeds or bark. On the breast lay what 
had been a piece of copper, in the form of a cross, which had now become verdigris. 
On the breast also lay a stone ornament with two perforations, one near each end, 
through which passed a string, by means of which it was suspended around the wear- 
er’s neck. On this string, which was made of sinews, and very much injured by time, 
were placed a great many beads made of ivory or bone, for I cannot certainly say 
which. “ * * 
Mounds of stone-—Two such mounds have been described already in the county of 
Perry. Others have been found in various parts of the country. There is one at least 
in the vicinity of Licking River, not many miles from Newark. ‘There is another on a 
branch of Hargus’s Creek, a few miles to the northeast of Circleville. There were sey- 
eral not very far from the town of Chillicothe. If these mounds were sometimes used as 
cemeteries of distinguished persons, they were also used as monuments with a view of 
perpetuating the recollection of some great transaction or event. In the former not 
more generally than one or two skeletons are found; in the latter none. These mounds 
are like those of earth, in form of a cone, composed of small stones on which no marks 
of tools were visible. In them some of the most interesting articles are found, such as 
urns, ornaments of copper, heads of spears, &c., of the same metal, as well as medals 
of copper and pickaxes of horneblende; * * * works of this class, compared with 
those of earth, are few, and they are none of them as large as the mounds at Grave 
Creek, in the town of Circleville, which belong to the first class. Isaw one of these 
stone tumuli which had been piled on the surface of the earth on the spot where 
three skeletons had been buried in stone coffins, beneath the surface. It was situated 
on the western edge of the hill on which the ‘‘ walled town” stood, on Paint Creek. 
The grayes appear to have been dug to about the depth of ours in the present times. 
After the bottom and sides were lined with thin flat stones, the corpses were placed 
in these graves in an eastern and western direction, and large flat stones were laid 
over the graves; then the earth which had been dug out of the graves was thrown 
over them. A huge pile of stones was placed over the whole. 1t is quite probable, 
however, that this was a work of our present race of Indians. Such graves are more 
common in Kentucky than Ohio. No article, except the skeletons, was found in these 
graves; and the skeletons resembled very much the present race of Indians. 
The mounds of Sterling County, Illinois, are described by W. C. Hol- 
brook* as follows: 
I recently made an examination of a few of the many Indian mounds found on Rock 
River, about two miles above Sterling, Ill. The first one opened was an oval mound 
about 20 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 7 feet high. In the interior of this I found a 
dolmen or quadrilateral wall about 10 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4} feet wide. It had 
been built of lime-rock from a quarry near by, and was covered with large flat stones. 
No mortar or cement had been used. The whole structure rested on the surface of the 
natural soil, the interior of which had been scooped out to enlarge the chamber. In- 
side of the dolmen I found the partly decayed remains of eight human skeletons, two 
very large teeth of an unknown animal, two fossils, one of which is not found in this 
place, and a plummet. One of the long bones had beensplintered; the fragments had 
united, but there remained large morbid growths of bone (exostosis) in several places. 
One of the skulls presented a circular opening about the size of a silver dime. This 
perforation had been made during life, for the edges had commenced to cicatrize. I 
*American Naturalist, 1877, xi, No. 11, p. 688. 
