244 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
individual died, he was interred near the surface, and the spot covered with a large quan- 
tity of rock and earth to protect the body from birds and beasts of prey. The disposition 
of all the Indians is to have their bodies deposited near those of their deceased relatives, 
or even on the top of them; and this would, in process of time, build up a large mound- 
like cemetery, which would also become covered with grass and trees. It is evident, that 
the extensive mounds found in different parts of this continent, have been formed in this 
manner, where large villages of Indians have been located for years, and selected a spot 
for their burial-ground. ‘The size of these mounds is not remarkable, since they took, 
perhaps, a century or more to accumulate ; but where a numerous population existed, and 
were swept off by pestilence, each interment contributing its quantity of earth and rock, a 
mound of large size would soon appear. As it has always been the custom, and still is, 
for the North American tribes to bury with their dead, if a man, his implements of war, 
if a woman, her domestic utensils, these depositories, if carefully opened, and the different 
strata of burial examined, would exhibit the different stages of advancement, pro- 
viding they had made any. ‘The only change we now know anything of, is the aban- 
donment of their stone implements, as soon as they were able to obtain metallic ones. 
The Cree nation always inter their dead, in preference to placing them in the forks of 
trees, as is the custom with other tribes. The grave is scarcely of sufficient depth to 
cover the body, which, with the envelopes and implements, is of considerable bulk. A 
pile of earth and stone is raised, around and on the top, in the form of a cone, fifteen to 
twenty feet in circumference, and two to four feet in height. The arms and utensils 
used by this tribe in ancient times, were, pots of stone; arrow-points, spear-heads, 
hatchets, and other edged tools, of flint; knives of the buffalo hump rib; fish-hooks from 
sturgeon-bones, and awls from the bones of the moose; the fibres of the root of the pine 
tree, called by them wa-tdh, was, and is still to some extent, used as twine for sewing 
together their bark canoes; a kind of thread is also made out of a weed called sha-a-sup, 
which they use for making nets; stone axes and mallets were made of various sizes, and 
used for different household purposes; spoons, called mi-kwéi-yis, and pans, were made 
out of the horns of the moose. Of all these, there yet remain a few, but most of them 
have been laid aside for more convenient ones obtained from the traders. Bone fish- 
hooks and awls, with lines made of the aforementioned root and plant, are still in use, 
and preferred by the Indians to those of European manufacture. They also cling with 
great tenacity to the horn spoon; perhaps for the reason that it is larger, and better 
adapted to serve their capacious stomachs. ‘The process of manipulation by which these 
things were wrought, was chiselling one stone with another, until the flint knife was 
made, with which other instruments were formed; a process, doubtless, long and tedious. 
The art is now lost, or, at least, discontinued; but we are informed that it was not con- 
