120 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS 
the mound evidences of fire are found in numerous places, but without any regularity 
as to depth and position. These evidences consist in strata of from one to four inches 
in thickness, in which the sand is of a dark color and has mixed with it numerous 
small fragments of charcoal. 
My theory is that the mound was built by gradual accretion in the following man- 
ner: That when a death occurred a funeral pyre was erected on the mound, upon 
which the body was placed. That after the body was consumed, any fragments of 
bones remaining were gathered, placed in a pot, and buried, and that the ashes and 
cinders were covered by a layer of sand brought from the immediate vicinity for that 
purpose. This view is further supported by the fact that only the shafts of the long 
bones are found, the expanded extremities, which would be most easily consumed, 
having disappeared ; also, by the fact that no bones of children were found. Their 
bones being smaller, and containing a less proportion of earthy matter, would be en- 
tirely consumed. * * * 
At the Santa Rosa mound the method of burial was different. Here I found the 
skeletons complete, and obtained nine well-preserved skulls. * * * The bodies 
were not, apparently, deposited upon any regular system, and I found no objects of 
interest associated with the remains. Itmay be that this was due to the fact that the 
skeletons found were those of warriors who had fallen in battle in which they had sus- 
tained defeat. This view is supported by the fact that they were all males, and that 
two of the skulls bore marks of ante-mortem injuries which must have been of a fatal 
character. 
Writing of the Choctaws, Bartram,* in alluding to the ossuary, or 
bone-house, mentions that so soon as this is filled a general inhumation 
takes place, in this manner: 
Then the respective coffins are borne by the nearest relatives of the deceased to the 
place of interment, where they are all piled one upon another in the form of a pyra- 
mid, and the conical hill of earth heaped above. 
The funeral ceremonies are concluded with the solemnization of a festival called 
the feast of the dead. 
Florian Gianque, of Cincinnati, Ohio, furnishes an account of a some- 
what curious mound-burial which had taken place in the Miami Val- 
ley of Ohio: 
A mound was opened in this locality, some years ago, containing a central corpse 
in a sitting posture, and over thirty skeletons buried around it in a circle, also in 
a sitting posture, buf leaning against one another, tipped over towards the right, 
facing inwards. I did not see this opened, but have seen the mounds and many 
ornaments, awls, &c., said to have been found near the central body. The parties 
informing me are trustworthy. 
As an example of interment, unique, so far as known, and interesting 
as being sui generis, the following description by Dr. J. Mason Spain- 
hour, of Lenoir, N. C., of an excavation made by him March 11, 1871, on 
the farm of R. V. Michaux, esq., near John’s River, in Burke County, 
N. C., is given. The author bears the reputation of an observer of un- 
doubted integrity, whose facts as given may not be doubted: 
EXCAVATION OF AN INDIAN MOUND. 
In a conversation with Mr. Michaux on Indian curiosities, he informed me that 
there was an Indian mound on his farm which was formerly of considerable height, 
* Bartram’s Travels, 1791, p. 513. 
