MOUND BUKIAL— FLORIDA. 25 



mound. That the latter supposition is the correct one I deem probable 

 from the fact that in digging in the mound evidences of fire are found in 

 numerous places, but without any regularity as to depth and position. 

 These evidences consist in strata of from one to four inches in thickness, in 

 which the sand is of a dark color and has mixed with it numerous small 

 fragments of charcoal. 



" My theory is that the mound was built by gradual accretion in the fol- 

 lowing manner : That when a death occurred a funeral pyre was erected on 

 the mound, upon which the body was placed. That after the body was 

 consumed, any fragments of bones remaining were gathered, placed in a pot, 

 and buried, and that the ashes and cinders were covered by a layer of sand 

 brought from the immediate vicinity for that purpose. This view is further 

 supported by the fact that only the shafts of the long bones are found, the 

 expanded extremities, which would be most easily consumed, having disap- 

 peared ; also, by the fact that no bones of children were found. Their 

 bones being smaller, and containing a less proportion of earthy matter, 

 would be entirely consumed. * * * 



"At the Santa Rosa mound the method of burial was different. Here 

 I found the skeletons complete, and obtained nine well-preserved skulls. 

 * * * The bodies were not apparently deposited upon any regular sys- 

 tem, and I found no objects of interest associated with the remains. It may 

 be that this was due to the fact that the skeletons found were those of war- 

 riors who had fallen in battle in which they had sustained a defeat. This 

 view is supported by the fact that they were all males, and that two of the 

 skulls bore marks of ante-mortem injuries which must have been of a fatal 

 character." 



Writing of the Choctaws, Bartrarn,* in alluding to the ossuary or bone- 

 house, mentions that so soon as this is filled a general inhumation takes 

 place, in this manner: 



" Then the respective coffins are borne by the nearest relatives of the 

 deceased to the place of interment, where they are all piled one upon an- 

 other in the form of a pyramid, and the conical hill of earth heaped above. 



* Bartram's Travels, 1791, p. 513. 



