BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 47 



Another mound of equal interest, although of a somewhat different 

 interior arrangement, was described by the same writer in the same 

 manuscript volume. This stood on the eastern bank of the Cumber- 

 land, opposite Nashville, and just across from the mouth of Lick 

 Branch. It was about 100 feet in diameter and 10 feet in height, and 

 near by was a larger mound. "In the centre of the mound, about 

 three feet from its surface, I encountered a large sacrificial vase, or 

 altar, forty-three inches in diameter, composed of a mixture of clay 

 and river shells. The rim of the vase was three inches in height. 

 The entire vessel had been moulded in a large wicker basket formed 

 of split canes and the leaves of the cane, the impressions of which 

 were plainly visible upon the outer surface." Within this were the 

 antlers and jaw bone of a deer, and a layer of ashes about 1 inch in 

 depth which seemed to have been derived from burning animal 

 matter. " Stone sarcophagi were ranged round the central altar, 

 with the heads of the dead to the centre, and the feet to the circum- 

 ference, resembling the radii of a circle. The inner circle of graves 

 was constructed with great care, and all the Indians buried around 

 the altar w^ere ornamented with beads of various kinds, some of which 

 had been cut out of bone, and others again were composed of entire 

 sea-shells, punctured so as to admit of the passage of the thread upon 

 which they were strung. ... A circle of graves extended around the 

 inner circle which we have described as radiating from the altar. 

 The stone coffins of the outer circle lay at right angles to the inner 

 circle, and rested, as it were, at the feet of the more highly honored 

 and favored dead. In the outer graves no ornaments were found, 

 only a few small arrowheads, and fragments of shells and pots." 

 Objects of shell, and an effigy vase, copper pendants, etc., were as- 

 sociated with the burials in the inner circle of graves. Two skeletons 

 were discovered on the southern slope of the mound, but their graves 

 had not been lined with stones. Near one, supposed to have been 

 the remains of a woman, was a beautiful vessel " composed of a 

 mixture of light yellow clay and shells . . . and was painted with 

 regular black figures." Beneath the skull of the second burial, 

 probably that of a man, " lay a splendid stone hatchet, with the 

 entire handle, and ring at the end of the handle, cut out of a compact 

 green chloritic primitive mineral." (Op. cit.) 



Graves in the vicinity of Nashville, as well as elsewhere, were in 

 some instances lined with fragments of large earthenware vessels, 

 similar to the one discovered in the mound just described. These 

 were the great " salt pans," or evaporating dishes, which may have 

 been used for various purposes, but primarily for the evaporation 

 of water from the salines. In referring to pieces of these large 

 cloth-marked vessels found on different sites near Nashville, it was 



