BDSHNELL] NATR'E CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 117 



the 2)resent city of St. Augustine by Ponce de Leon in 1513, on the 

 west coast by Narvaez in 1528, and in the same region by De Soto 

 11 years later. The southern half of the peninsuhi, especially along 

 the Gulf coast, was also occupied by many villages, but even less is 

 known of the inhabitants, nor is it definitely known to what linguistic 

 family they belonged, although they may have been Muskhogean. 



Much of interest regarding the burial customs of the ancient peo- 

 ple who occupied this region at the time of the coming of Europeans 

 has been learned as a result of the careful examination of many 

 mounds, both on the east and west coast. Moore has examined many 

 mounds on the west coast between Tampa Bay and the mouth of the 

 Ocilla, and has discovered innumerable burials contained in them. 

 Various forms are represented, with a large proportion closely flexed, 

 and in other instances only skulls without any other bones in con- 

 tact. But of all the works examined in this region the most inter- 

 esting stood near Tarpon Springs, near the Gulf shore, in the far 

 northwestern corner of Hillsboro County. This is the county in 

 which Tampa is located. The mound was thoroughly explored and 

 " the remains of more than six hundred skeletons " were encountered. 

 "These, with notable exception — probably those of chiefs and head 

 men — had been dismembered previously to interment, but were dis- 

 tributed in distinct groups that I regarded as communal or totemic 

 and phratral, and of exceeding interest ; for they seemed to indicate 

 that the burial mound had been regarded by its builders as a tribal 

 settlement, a sort of 'Little City of their Dead,' and that if so, it 

 might be looked on as still, in a measure, representing the distribu- 

 tion and relation of the clans and phratries in an actual village or 

 tribal settlement of these people when living. Moreover, in the 

 minor disposition of the skeletons that had not been scattered, but 

 had been buried in parks, or else entire and extended, in sherd-lined 

 graves or wooden cists within and around each of those groups, it 

 seemed possible to still trace somewhat of the relative ranks of indi- 

 viduals in these groups, and not a few of the social customs and re- 

 ligious beliefs of the ancient builders. This possibility was still fur- 

 ther borne out by the fact that with the skeletal remains were asso- 

 ciated, in different ways, many superb examples of pottery and sac- 

 rificial potsherds, and numerous stone, shell and bone utensils, 

 weapons, and ornaments." (Gushing, (1), pp. 24—26.) 



This interesting and plausible conclusion reached by Gushing re- 

 garding the placing of the dead belonging to the different totemic 

 groups in distinct graves, or rather in distinct parts of the great 

 burial mound, tends to recall Adair's description of the " bone- 

 houses " of the Choctaw. PTe said " each house contained the bones 

 of one tribe, separately." This must have referred to the clans and 



