258 TRIBES AND DIALECTS OP CONNECTICUT Ieth. ann. 43 



late burials, where during historic times the Mohegan have been 

 laid away and marked, fii'st with granite slabs and last with manu- 

 factured stone. The old graves and the new are commingled. The 

 older generation of Indians just passed away remembered how bodies 

 used to be carried to the cemetery suspended by thongs beneath the 

 neck, waist, and heels, to a pole carried on the shoulders of two men. 

 This seems to have been the general method of carrying corpses 

 reported among most of the central and eastern tribes. 



At the same place, a few rods north and fronting on the river bluff, 

 here about 50 feet high, was an ancient shell heap, still conspicuous, 

 and composed of oyster and hard and soft shell clams, from a foot 

 to 18 inches in depth. The usual shell-heap implements and a few 

 potsherds may be found among them. This was, moreover, the site 

 of Uncas Fort in 1645, when the Mohegan chief was besieged by 

 Pessacus. Several legends are current in connection with the great 

 siege, in which the Narragansett might have succeeded in reducing 

 the Mohegan if the latter had not been relieved by a supply of food 

 brought in by Captain Leffingwell coming from Saybrook. The 

 site of the stockade has been marked by a rubble pyramid erected 

 by the local Daughters of the American Revolution and appro- 

 priately inscribed. 



One of the Mohegan legends is as follows :° 



"When the Narragansett had landed on Shantic Point and had 

 taken up theii- position of siege, it looked to the Mohegan as though 

 they were to lose; for the enemy outnumbered them. Now, there 

 was one Narragansett who had climbed a certain tree not far off, 

 where by means of his elevation he could command an advantageous 

 view of the Mohegan behind their palisades. From this perch he 

 directed a destructive fire into them, adding insult and raillery to 

 his attacks. 'Are you hungry?' he would ask in taunting tones. In 

 order to remove such an obnoxious adversaiy from their view the best 

 of the Mohegan marksmen engaged in trying to bring him down, 

 but without result. His abusiveness increased as theii- shots failed 

 to touch him. Then they concluded that he was a moigu', 'witch.' 

 At length a Mohegan who possessed power equal to that of the Narra- 

 gansett appeared and ordered the others to desist. Taking a bullet 

 from his pouch he swallowed it. Straightway it came out of his 

 navel. He swallowed it again and it came out of his navel. Again 

 he did it, with the same result. Now he loaded his rifle with the 

 charmed ball, and taking aim, fired at the man in the tree. The 

 Narragansett dropped out of the branches, dead." 



» Quoted from Speck, ref. i (1909), pp. 196-197. 



