CAVE BURIAL. 29 



was not; implements of authority were near each body. The difference in 

 the quality of the beads, the tomahawks in one, two, and three pieces, and 

 the difference that the bodies were placed from the surface, indicate beyond 

 doubt that these three persons had been buried by Masons, and those, too, 

 that understood what they were doing. 



" Will some learned Mason unravel this mystery, and inform the 

 Masonic world how they obtained so much Masonic information % 



" The tomahawks, maxillary bones, some of the teeth, beads, and other 

 bones, have been forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, 

 D. C, to be placed among the archives of that institution for exhibition, at 

 which place they may be seen." 



If Dr. Spainhour's inferences are incorrect, still there is a remarkable 

 coincidence of circumstances patent to every Mason. 



CAVE BURIAL. 



Natural or artificial holes in the ground, caverns, and fissures in rocks 

 have been used as places of deposit for the dead since the earliest periods 

 of time, and are used up to the present day by not only the American 

 Indians, but by peoples noted for their mental elevation and civilization, 

 our cemeteries furnishing numerous specimens of artificial or partly artifi- 

 cial caves. As to the motives which have actuated this mode of burial, a 

 discussion would be out of place at this time, except as may incidentally 

 relate to our own Indians, who, so far as can be ascertained, simply adopted 

 caves as ready and convenient resting places for their deceased relatives 

 and friends. 



In almost every State in the Union burial caves have been discovered, 

 but as there is more or less of identity between them, a few illustrations 

 will serve the purpose of calling the attention of observers to the subject. 



While in the Territory of Utah, in 1872, the writer discovered a 

 natural cave not far from the House Range of mountains, the entrance to 

 which resembled the shaft of a mine. In this the Gosi-Ute Indians had 

 deposited their dead, surrounded with different articles, until it was quite 

 tilled up; at least it so appeared from the cursory examination made, limited 

 time preventing a careful exploration. In the fall of the same year another 



