PARTIAL CREMATION. 59 



were a few very much decomposed, but unburned, human bones. No imple- 

 ments of any kind were discovered. The furnace appears to have been con- 

 structed by excavating the pit and placing at the bottom of it the bodies or 

 skeletons which had possibly been collected from scaffolds, and placing the 

 fuel among and above the bodies, with a covering of poles or split timbers 

 extending over and resting upon the earth, with the clay covering above, 

 which latter we now find resting upon the charred remains. The ends of the 

 timber covering, where they were protected by the earth above and below, 

 were reduced to charcoal, parallel pieces of which were found at right angles 

 to the length of the mound. No charcoal was found among or near the 

 remains, the combustion there having been complete. The porous and softer 

 portions of the bones were reduced to pulverized bone-black. Mr. Stevens 

 also examined the furnace. The mound had probably not been opened 

 after the burning." 



This account is doubtless true, but the inferences may be incorrect. 



Many more accounts of cremation among different tribes might be 

 given to show how prevalent was the custom, but the above are thought to 

 be sufficiently distinctive to serve as examples. 



PARTIAL CREMATION. 



Allied somewhat to cremation is a peculiar mode of burial which is 

 supposed to have taken place among the Cherokees or some other tribe of 

 North Carolina, and which is thus described by J. W. Foster:* 



" Up to 1819 the Cherokees held possession of this region, when, in 

 pursuance of a treaty, they vacated a portion of the lands lying in the val- 

 ley of the Little Tennessee River. In 1821 Mr. McDowell commenced 

 fanning. During the first season's operations the plowshare, in passing 

 over a certain portion of a field, produced a hollow rumbling sound, and in 

 exploring for the cause the first object met with was a shallow layer of char- 

 coal, beneath which was a slab of burnt clay about 7 feet in length and 4 

 feet broad, which, in the attempt to remove, broke into several fragments. 

 Nothing beneath this slab was found, but on examining its under side, to 

 his great surprise there was the mould of a naked human figure. Three of 



* Pie-histoi k' Races, 187:!, p. 14"J. 



