BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 129 



they made a sudden angle, and went straight to the mound. He 

 saw them walking over it and round and round ; seeming to be en- 

 gaged in earnest talk. After remaining a length of time, they left 

 it and came to the house. The company. I think he told me, con- 

 sisted of ten or twelve Indians; all young men except one, who 

 seemed to be borne down with extreme old age. By signs they asked 

 for something to eat; which was given them; after which they 

 immediately departed." (Montanus, (1), pp. 91-92.) 



With three distinct accounts of visits by parties of Indians to their 

 ancient burial places — and it is plausible to consider the different 

 journe3's to have been undertaken by some whose forefathers were 

 buried in the mounds — it is to be regretted that apparently no at- 

 tempt was made to ascertain the name of the tribe to which the 

 several groups belonged or whence they came. But only those whose 

 ancestors lay in these great tribal burial places would have retained 

 the traditions of the sites, and these and no others would have made 

 pilgrimages to their tombs. And so it is evident that descendants 

 of the once numerous Monacan were living in piedmont Virginia 

 within a century, and still retained knowledge of the locations of 

 their ancient settlements with their near-by cemeteries. Now all 

 have passed away. 



It is more than probable that other mounds once standing in this 

 part of Virginia, similar to the one examined by Jefferson, have 

 been entirely destroyed and no record of their existence preserved, 

 and were it not for Jefferson's own account that most interesting 

 example would have suffered a like fate. But burial places of this 

 form may not have existed over a very wide region. One was for- 

 merly standing some 3^ miles north of Luray, near the bank of 

 Pass Eun, in Page County, Virginia. It had been reduced by the 

 plow from an original height of between 8 and 9 feet to about one- 

 third of that elevation. The remaining portion of the mound when 

 examined revealed great quantities of human remains, some of which 

 were cremated, all greatly decayed. Graves were encountered beneath 

 the original surface upon which the structure was raised. Some 

 burials were covered by stones. Various objects of native origin 

 were associated with the burials. (Fowke, (1), pp. 49-53.) 



A similar burial place, estimated to have contained at least 800 

 skeletons, or remains of that number of individuals, stood about 2 

 miles northwest of Linville, near the bank of Linville Creek, in Rock- 

 ingham County, Virginia. This likewise had been greatly reduced by 

 cultivation, and " over the entire surface of the mound, to a depth 

 of six inches, there is not so much as a space three inches square that 

 did not contain fragments of bone which had been dragged down 

 130548°— 20 9 



