SKPULCIIRAL MOUNDS, ETC, OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. 113 



place of the family, which is usually situated on a hill or in a wood. The corpse 

 is preceded by two men at full speed on horseback, and is followed by the rela- 

 tions, with loud cries and lamentations, while a woman strews ashes on the track, 

 to prevent the soul from returning. On arriving at the place of burial, the corpse 

 is laid on the surface of the ground, surrounded, if a man, with his arms ; if a 

 woman, with female implements, and with a great quantity of provisions, and with 

 vessels filled with chica and with wine, which, according to their opinion, are 

 necessary to subsist them during their passage to another world. They sometimes 

 even kill a horse and inter it in the same ground. After these ceremonies, they 

 take leave, with many tears, of the deceased, wishing him a prosperous journey, 

 and cover the body with earth and stones in a pyramidal form, upon which they 

 pour a great quantity of chica." — {Molina's Chili, Vol. II., p. 82.) 



The Esquimaux cover their dead with rude heaps of stone, above which they 

 pile the sledges and canoes of the deceased. The bodies are usually closely 

 wrapped in skins, and placed in a sitting posture. — {Capt. Lyon^s Narrative, p. 68.) 

 Kotzebue mentions a structure of stones which he designates as a " round tower, 

 four fathoms in height," at Kotzebue Sound. It was probably a sepulchral monu- 

 ment of the savages. — -{Voyage, Vol. I., p. 210.) 



SEPULCHRAL MOUNDS AND MONUMENTS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. 



" The most enduring monuments of the primeval ages of society," observes a 

 learned archaeologist, " were those erected in memory of the dead ; and it seems 

 that the further we go back into the history of mankind, the deeper we find man's 

 veneration for his departed brethren. The simplest, and also the most durable, 

 method of preserving the memory of the departed, was by raising a barrow, or 

 mound of stones, over his remains ; and accordingly, we find instances of this mode 

 of interment in almost all countries of the globe." The extent to which it prevailed 

 in America, we have already indicated 5 and the coincidences in form and structure 

 between the sepulchral monuments of this continent and those of the Old World, 

 have been the subject of incidental remark. These coincidences are, however, 

 sufficiently remarkable to merit further attention ; and it is believed a brief review 

 of the character of the primitive sepulchral monuments of the other continent will 

 serve greatly to illustrate and explain those of our own country, at the same time 

 that it establishes the general prevalence of the custom of mound-burial in past 

 ages. 



The earliest of human records distinctly refer to the practice of erecting mounds 

 of earth or stone over the dead ; but we find in the pyramids of Egypt — 

 15 



