160 APPENDIX. 



the highways great heaps of stones offered, and such other things."* So, too, an 

 early writer on the Housatonic Indians observes : " There is a large heap of stones, 

 I suppose ten cart-loads, in the way to Wanhktukook, which the Indians have 

 thrown together as they passed by the place : for it used to be their custom, every 

 time one passed by, to throw a stone upon it ; but what was the end thereof they 

 cannot tell, only that their fathers used to do it, and they do it because it was the 

 custom of their fathers. Some suppose it was designed as an expression of their 

 gratitude to the Supreme Being, that he preserved them to see the place again." 

 — {Hopkins's Memoirs of Housatonic Indimis, ]). 11.) The "Elk-horn pyramid," 

 on the Upper Missouri, is regarded wdth deep reverence, and no hunter passes it 

 without adding another horn to its proportions. This accumulation has been 

 going on for a long period, and the pile is now reported to be not far from fifteen 

 feet high, and of corresponding lateral proportions. It is composed entirely of 

 elk-horns, many of which are to be found upon the adjacent prairies. An instance 

 of this practice of accumulating stones and other materials, is mentioned by Mr. 

 Schoolcraft, in which the offerings consisted of sticks and twigs. It is highly pro- 

 bable that most of the great heaps of stone scattered over the country owe their 

 origin to this practice. It is further possible that some of them may have origi- 

 nated in a practice mentioned by Beverly, who states that the Indians sometimes 

 signalized the conclusion of a peace, or some other memorable action, by burying a 

 tomahawk, and raising over it a heap of stones. — (^Hist. Virginia, p. 164.) If such 

 was the fact, " burying the hatchet " was not a mere rhetorical figure among the 

 Indian orators. 



Customs, similar in all respects to those described as existing among the Indians, 

 prevailed among the ancient Celts, and have hardly become extinct among the 

 Highlanders of Scotland. A cai7m, or heap of stones, was a common monument 

 of the dead ; and hence arose the saying, " Fll add a stane to yer cair7i" in acknow- 

 ledgment of a service, or in token of regard. Two motives, however, appear to 

 have existed for throwing a stone, in passing, to a cairn. In the one case, says 

 Logan, it arose from respect to the deceased, whose memory it was wished to 

 prolong by increasing the size of his funeral mount. The soul of the departed 

 was beheved to be pleased with this mark of attention. The other motive for 

 throwing stones to augment a cairn was, to mark with execration the burial-place 

 of a criminal ; a pi'actice which, according to Dr. Smith, was instituted by the 

 Druids. " It is curious," continues the above author, " that the same practice 

 should result from views so different; yet the fact is so, and the author has often, 

 in the days of his youth, passed the grave of a suicide, on which, according to 

 custom, he never failed to fling a stone." " A earn or cairn" says O'Connor 



* Acosta, in Purchas, Vol. III., p. 1028. The ancients erected heaps of stones in the ci-ossways, and every 

 traveller augmented it by adding a stone. These were termed Thermulm. The pilgrims of the Middle Ages 

 did the same, when they came within view of the end of their journeys ; the piles which they erected were 

 called Montjoyes. In the passes of the Alps, rude heaps of stones are visible, marking the spot of some 

 jleed of violence, or of some catastrophe. 



