408 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 508. 



second, type, Dimmochia incongrua (Eulophus 

 incongruus, Ashm.). 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 

 VAELE AUCTORITATIS. 



To THE Editor of Science: Tiie early au- 

 thorities alluded to by Mr. Eastman are always 

 of interest and more so than modern men 

 seem disposed to admit, hence it is of genuine 

 valiie to run down his reference to ' Origines.' 

 - In the first place, it should be obvious that 

 the form ' Origines ' could not come from 

 Origen, as Mr. Eastman suggests. 



It seems likely that Mr. Emmons, or Ms 

 author, intended to quote the ' Origines ' of 

 M. Porcius Cato (Cato Major), who died 

 ■B. C. 149; and of which work in two books 

 fragments remain. 



I have not the work by me, but believe there 

 is something of the kind quoted from it in 

 a medieval Latin writer, Lullius, if my mem- 

 ory serves me right, or it may have been 

 Albertus Magnus, a work of whose is bound 

 up with an early edition of a treatise by Lully. 



The study of the early writers, difficult as 

 it is from lack of knowledge of the meanings 

 of their technical teJ-ms, is most unwarrant- 

 ably neglected; and for the same reason their 

 attainments are ignorantly sneered at. The 

 old idea that Galen thought the arteries car- 

 ried air, repeated from text-book to text-book, 

 is a case in point, easily disproved by any one 

 with a knowledge of ancient phraseology, from 

 Galen's writings. 



Much ancient tradition thus passes out of 



our ken, to be dug out by the solitary explorer 



here and there, but to vanish for ages or longer 



from the sum of practical human knowledge. 



Geo. Chas. Buchanan. 



Mora, Minn., 

 August 17, 1904. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 



INTRUSIVE BURIALS IN ANCIENT MOUNDS. 



The custom, which was formerly practised 

 by various tribes throughout the Mississippi 

 valley, namely, that of utilizing the ancient 

 mounds as places of burial for their dead, is 

 even now followed by some Ojibways in Min- 

 nesota. The Ojibway village of Sa-ga-wah- 



mick, which is located on the south shore of 

 Mille Lac in the state of Minnesota, is situated 

 in the midst of a group of some sixty mounds 

 — many of these being seven or eight feet in 

 height. According to the Ojibway tradition, 

 which is also verified by historical facts, the 

 country adjacent to Mille Lac was formerly 

 occupied by the M'de Wakan Sioux who were 

 driven out by the Ojibways about the year 

 1750, or, according to the Ojibway's story, 

 ' five generations ago.' 



The Indians at Sa-ga-wah-mick recognize 

 the mounds as being artificial, and claim they 

 were erected by the Sioux over the remains of 

 their dead. Several facts tend to justify the 

 belief that such may be the true explanation 

 of their origin. Fragments of pottery which 

 I found near the original surface in a mound 

 about four feet in height were similar in struc- 

 ture and design to pieces which were discov- 

 ered upon the surface of a village site, near by, 

 and which is known to have been the site of a 

 Sioux settlement before the country was oc- 

 cupied by the Ojibways. The peculiar form 

 of burial discovered in the mounds was cer- 

 tainly entirely difl^erent from any known to 

 have been practised by the Ojibways and 

 would conform with the Sioux habit of re- 

 moving the flesh from the bones before the 

 latter were interred. In one mound which I 

 opened were four burials. The arm and leg 

 bones of each skeleton had been bunched 

 separately, upon each was placed a skull, all 

 rested upon the original surface and the mound 

 of earth had been formed over them. In ad- 

 dition to these only one small bone was found 

 in the mound. 



The. Ojibway believing these mounds to have 

 been erected by the Sioux, now utilize them as 

 burial places for their own dead. 



On the sides and top of one of the largest 

 mounds at Sa-ga-wah-mick were counted 

 thirteen comparatively recent graves, all hav- 

 ing the box-like cover of hewn logs — so typical 

 of Ojibway burials — upon one end of which 

 was cut the totem of the deceased. Around 

 the summits of several mounds a picket fence 

 had been erected to surround and thereby 

 protect the graves. 



Thus we find in a remote Ojibway village 



