THOMAS] THE HISTORICAL, EVIDENCE. 657 



Turning to the older records relating to the northern section of the 

 country, we are surprised at fiudiug in them so few references to the 

 artificial mounds of this region. I have succeeded iu finding, after a 

 somewhat laborious and careful examination, but one mention or indica- 

 tion of them in the Jesuit Relations and none iu the writings of the 

 Eecollects (though there are several mentions of southern mouuds). Yet 

 one of the missiouaries must have passed a good portion of the winter 

 of 1700 in the very midst of the Cahokia group, as Father Gravier says : 

 "Uue de nos missionaires les doit visiter durant tout I'hyver de 2 et 2 

 jours, et en autant aux Kaowikia qui out pris leur quartier d'hyver a 4 

 lieues plus haut que le village." ' 



One of the early notices of mounds in this section is by Cadwallader 

 Golden, in his '' History of the Five Nations," in which he notes the fact 

 that " a round hill " was sometimes i-aised over the grave in which a 

 corpse had been deposited.* 



Carver noticed ancient earthworks on the Mississippi near Lake 

 Pepin, but knew nothing of their origin.^ 



Heckwelder observed some of these works near Detroit, of which Dr. 

 Steiuer published an account in a Philadelphia periodical in 1789 or 

 1790. This description was afterwards given briefly in his history of 

 the "Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations," and is quoted in 

 other papers. 



Although so little relating to mounds is to be gleaned ft'om the older 

 records, they do mention some facts which afford a reasonable explana- 

 tion of some of the ancient monuments found in the northern section of 

 our country. 



As, for example, the communal or tribal burials, where the bones and 

 remains of all the dead of a village, region, or tribe who had died sub- 

 sequent to the preceding general burial (usually eight or ten years) were 

 collected together and deposited in one common grave. This method, 

 which, as we have seen, was also followed by some of the southern 

 tribes, has been frequently described; among others, by William Bar- 

 tram iu the quotation already giveu; by Dumont," and by Barnard 

 Eomans.'' But the fullest and most vivid description is that by Jean 

 de Breboeuf, in his account " Den Ceremonies quails (Jes Hurims) (jurdent 

 en leur sepulture et rle leur deuil,'^ and "De la Feste solemnelle des 

 morts." '^ 



Although it is stated in reference to these burials by the southern 

 tribes that they closed by heaping a mound over the grave, so far no 

 statement has been found that such was the case in regard to those in 



' Rcl. ou Juurn. (Iu Voyage, by Jaques Gravier, orig. Fr., p. 8. 



^Introductiou, p. 16, London, 1747. 



^Travels, ed. 1796, Phila., pp. 35, 36; ed. 1779, London, p. 57. 



•Memoircs, Hist. La., T. 1, p. 246. 



6 Adair, <moted by Dr. Brinton and C. C. Jones. ' 'Antiq. Southern Indians, " p. 190, does Dot describe 

 or nuMition at tlie place referred to, or elsewhere, that I can rind, the communal burial. 



'.Jesuit ReLations for 1636, pp. 129-139, translation 5tb Ann. Kept. Bureau Ethn., pp. 110-119. See 

 also Lafitan, "Moours des Sauvuges," ii, pp. 447-455. 



. 12 ETII 42 



