65G MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



mantle; here it is suttered to remain, visited aud protected by tlie frieuds and rela- 

 tions, until the flesh becomes putrid, so as easily to part from the boues, then under- 

 takers, who make it their business, carefully strip the flesh from the boues, wash 

 and cleanse them, and when dry aud purified by the air, having provided a curi- 

 ously wrought chest or coftin fabricated of bones' aud splints, they place all the 

 bones therein, which is deposited in the bone-house, a building erected for that pur- 

 pose in every town. Aud wheu this house is full a general solemn funeral takes 

 place. When the nearest kindred or friends of the deceased, on a day appointed, 

 repair to the bone-honse, take tip the respective coffins, and following one another 

 in order of seuiorit.y, the nearest relations and connections attending their respective 

 corpse and the multitude following after them, all as one family, with united voice of 

 alternate allelu.jah and lamentation, slowly proceeding to the place of general iuter- 

 ment, where they jilace the coffins in order, forming a pyramid, and lastlj' cover all 

 over with earth, which raises a conical hill or mount. When they return to town 

 in order of solemn procession, concluding the day with a festival, ■which is called 

 the feast of the dead."- 



Reuiaius of coffins or wiappiugs of cane matting have frequently been 

 found in southern mounds. 



The description of the walls connected with the chunk yards as given 

 in the Bartraui MS.' is familiar and need not be repeated here. 



These statements, mostly mere incidental mentions in works of ti'avel- 

 ers and explorers, whose minds and thoughts were intent on things 

 more directly appertaining to practical life than archeological researches, 

 made without regard to their bearing on the questions relating to the 

 (U'igln of these works, are entitled to credit; and, although they do 

 not prove positively that all ancient monuments of the mound region 

 are to be attributed to the liulians, they do prove beyond contradiction 

 that some of them were built by Indians and that at the iirst advent of 

 the white man they were in common use among this people in the 

 .southern section. In other words, this evidence makes out a prima facie 

 ••ase. which must be rebutted by facts which are, or appear to be 

 inconsistent with this conclusion. 



How soon are things familiar to a preceding generation relegated 

 to the domain of antiquity ! A century after the close of the forego- 

 ing testimony these renmins, long forsaken and forgotten, begin to be 

 discovered one by one, and are looked upon by the new generation 

 tion which has arisen, as strange and mysterious mementos of a ''long 

 lost" and "unknown race," and are classed, according to modern 

 archeological nomenclature, as "i)rehistoric remains." Where the plow 

 has not invaded them the oak, walnut, and beech, taking root in the 

 rich, rank soil, have grown to full stature, and their size and numerous 

 rings of growth are taken as indications of the vast antiquity of these 

 strange works. The imagination, having once obtained the rein, runs 

 back over the ages until it is lost in the haze of the past. Is it strange 

 that the "untutored savage," without writings or records, should in a 

 few — a very few — generations lose sight of the past when our own civi- 

 lized race forgets in the same time? 



I IJoiies is evidently :i misprint lor ■' canes." ' Squier & Davis, Anc. Mon.. p. 12, and Squier 



= Ibid, 11.516. Aborig. Mon. of New York, p. 135. 



