38 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [pull. 71 



lower left corner bears this description : " The howse wherin the 

 Tombe of their werowans standeth/"' This is copied in plate 3, «, 

 being a detail from the large sketch of Secotan. It is evident from 

 the early drawing that the so-called " tomb " was an elevated plat- 

 form erected within a structure of ordinary form, and the whole 

 must have resembled rather closely the " temples '' or " bone-houses " 

 of certain Muskhogean tribes of the south, as will be shown later. 

 But unfortunately nothing is told by the old writers of the final dis- 

 position of the human remains which were first placed in the " tem- 

 ples," as at Secotan. Later they may have been collected and de- 

 posited in graves, or they may have become scattered and lost, but 

 this is doubtful. 



The temple tombs, as already described, appear to have stood 

 near, or rather belonged to, the larger, more permanent settlements, 

 and so became the resting places of the more important dead of the 

 community. However, it is quite evident the remains of the chief 

 men were not placed in ordinary graves, even though a " temple " 

 was not available. This is of great interest and is revealed in a 

 deposition made by one Francis Tomes, relating to the Wyanoak or 

 Weanoc, in the year 1661, after they had removed southward from 

 the banks of the James. The deposition reads in part : " Then came 

 in sight of the Wyanoak Indian Town which was on the South Side 

 of Wyanoak River where they forded over to the town wherein stood 

 an English built house, in which the King had been shott & an apple 

 Orchard. From thence they went about two or three miles to the 

 Westward where in an elbow of a swamp stood a Fort near which 

 in the swamp the murdered King was laid on a scaffold & covered 

 with Skins & matts which I saw." (Virginia Magazine, (1), p. 3.) 



But a simpler form of burial existed among the native inhabitants 

 of tidewater Virginia, and probably the great majority found their 

 final resting places in graves prepared near the villages. Smith 

 wrote (op. cit., p. 75) : " For their ordinary burials, they digge a deep 

 hole in the earth with sharpe stakes ; and the corpses being lapped in 

 skins and mats with their jewels, they lay them upon sticks in the 

 ground, and so cover them with earth. The buriall ended, the women 

 beihg painted all their faces with black cole and oile, doe sit 24 

 howers in the houses mourning and lamenting by turnes, with such 

 yelling and howling as may express their great passions." 



Very few ancient burial places have been discovered within the 

 region described by Smith, or probably it would be more correct to 

 say few records of such discoveries, if made, have been preserved, 

 therefore it is gratifying to find a single reference which tends to 

 verify Smith's account of " their ordinary burials." This refers to 

 discoveries made about the year 1835 on the right bank of the Chicka- 

 hominy, in Charles City County, Virginia, on the land of Col. J. S. 



