692 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



Europeaus and (k'rived this luode ofliuiial from them. This view,'" he 

 continues, "is sustaiued not only by the presence of copper crosses 

 and of vases with crosses and scalloped circles painted around them, 

 and of bones evidently diseased by syphilis, in the stone oraves, but 

 also by certain traditions formerly preserved by the surrounding In- 

 dian tribes." ' 



Dr. Jones may have been mistaken in some of iiis conclusions: this 

 language is therefore given here as nuich because it indicates the im- 

 pression made uj)on a well informed mind by the careful study of these 

 works, as for the statements in it. Attention, however, is called to the 

 copper crosses mentioned, as they are an indication of contact with 

 Europeaus. Not that the presence of a cross is necessarily an indica- 

 tion of contact with European civilization — for many are found which 

 must have been in existence long before the discovery by Columbus — 

 but because of the peculiar form of some of those alluded to. 



But the position assumed does not rest on such vague and uncertain 

 proof as it is stated positively by Loskiel that the Delawares were ac- 

 customed to bury their dead in this wise; his words are as follows: 



They buried their dead by digging a grave of the required size and about one or 

 two feet deep; they put flat stones at the bottom and set others at each end aud each 

 side on the edge; then laid the body in, generally on the back at full length, covered 

 the grave with the same kind of stone laid as closely together as practicahle, without 

 cement, sometimet: laijin.j smaller stones veer the joints or cracks to keep the earth from 

 falling into the grave. Then they covered the grave with earth, not generally more 

 than two or three feet high.- 



Barber states that — 



Several tribes were accustomed to incase their dead in stone boxes or tombs. 

 Among these were the Leuui-Lenape, or Delawares, of Pennsylvania, although the 

 graves already opened show an antiquity of probal)ly not more than one hundred 

 and fifty or two hundred years, because the native contents, consisting of frag- 

 ments of rude pottery and ornaments, are associated usually with articles of Eu- 

 ropean manufacture, such as glass beads, iron or copper implements, and por- 

 tions of tirearms. A number of graves have been examined in the vicinity of 

 the Delaware Watergap. The tumuli were scarcely distinguishable, but were 

 surrounded by traces of shallow trenches. The skeletons lay at a depth of about 

 three feet, aud were in almost every instance inclosed in rude stone coffins. In one 

 case the body had been placed in a slight excavation, facing the east, and above it 

 a low mound had been built. ' 



This evidence is not only conclusive as to the fact that .some Indians 

 of historic times did bury in cists of this form, but it at the same time 

 specifies the tribes — the Delawares aud, by inference, the Shawnees — for 

 as, at the time indicated a part of the latter, as is well known, were living 

 with or in the vicinity of the former, the two tribes being ethnically re 

 lated. This introduces a new factor into the argument and limits its 

 scope, as it directs the inquiry along a particular line. The fact of the 



' Aborigiual Remains. Tenn.. p. :i.">; Sm. Cont.. Vol. XSII. 



' Hist. Miss. United Brethren, p. 120. 



3 American N,iturali3t, Vol. XI. 1877. p. 199. 



