STON?]- HEAPS — STONES OK MEMORIAL, ETC. 159 



The smaller stone-heaps of the West seem to have been connected with some 

 system of burial, and were perhaps designed to protect the bodies of those who 

 casually met their death among the hills, or in some encounter with an enemy, 

 irom the attacks of wild animals, as well as to point out their places of sepulture.* 

 It is still customary among some of the Indian tribes to carefully envelope the 

 bodies of their dead, and place them in trees or on scaffoldings, for the same pur- 

 pose.f 



Occasionally, after interment in the earth, stakes are driven around the graves 

 for the sake of protection. Whether the large heap first described was raised 

 over the body of some distinguished savage, or as a simple mark or monument 

 upon the Shawanoe trail, it is difficult to determine. The absence of human 

 remains would seem to favor the latter conclusion. However this may be, there 

 is certainly nothing very singular in the existence of these monuments. A 

 spot remarkable in any respect, seldom failed to arouse the superstitions of the 

 Indians, or attract their reverence, and to become in time a great " medicine " or 

 mystery. According to Acosta, the Peruvians had a practice of casting a stone 

 as an offering upon any remarkable spot, at the crossings of paths, and on the tops 

 of hills or mountains. " It is therefore," observes our authority, " that we find by 



* " To perpetuate the memory of any remarkable warriors killed in the woods, I must here observe that 

 every Indian traveller, as he passes that way, throws a stone on the place, according as he hkes or dislikes 

 the occasion or manner of death of the deceased. In the woods we often see innumerable heaps of small 

 stones in these places, where, according to tradition, some of their distinguished people were either killed 

 or buried, till the bones could be gathered ; then they add Pelion on Ossa, still increasing each heap, as a 

 lasting monument and honor to them, and an incentive to great actions." — Adair's History of the Ameiican 

 Indians, p. i 84. 



" At or soon after burial, the relations of the deceased sometimes cover the grave with stones ; and, for 

 years after, occasionally resort to it, and mourn over or recount the merits and virtues of the silent tenant." 

 — Hunter s JSfarrative, p. 309. 



" They have other sorts of tombs ; as when an Indian is slain, in that veiy place they make a heap of 

 stones (or sticks, when stones are not to be found) ; to this memorial, every Indian that passes by adds a 

 stone, to augment the heap, in respect to the deceased hero." — Laiosons Carolina (T709), p. 22. 



Long describes an Indian burial-place near Piqua, Ohio, where the dead were placed upon the bare 

 limestone rocks, and covered over with slabs of stone. No order was displayed in the arrangement of the 

 graves. A cemetery of like character, in which each grave is marked by a heap of stones, is said to exist 

 in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. 



The Bheels of the mountain district of India still raise cairns, or iiide piles of stones, over the bodies of 

 their chiefs, the tops of which, at particular periods, are covered with oil, red lead, and vermilion. — Cole- 

 man's Bindu Mythology, p. 27 1 . 



f " Among the Blackfeet, the dead are not buried in the ground, if it can be avoided. The body is sewn 

 up in a buffalo robe, dressed in his best clothes, bis face painted red, but without his weapons, and laid in 

 some retired place : in ravines, rocks, forests, or on high, steep banks. It is often covered with wood and 

 stones, so that the wolves may not reach it. Frequently the corpse remains above ground in a kind of 

 shed. At the funeral of rich Indians, several horses are often killed on the spot ; we were told of instances 

 in which ten and twelve, and even one hundred and fifty, were killed." — Maximilian's Travels in North 

 America, p. 239- 



