Mound- Builders. 85 



ton very much decayed. Within these vaults and beside 

 the illustrous dead, were found more than 3,000 shell-beads, 

 ornaments of mica, copper bracelets, and other stone carv- 

 ings. Around the lower vault were found ten much decayed 

 skeletons, all in a sitting posture. 



The skeletons in the vaults, doubtless, were the remains 

 of royalty, or some distinguished chiefs, whose memory 

 these devoted people desired to perpetuate, while the ten 

 skeletons, which surrounded the vault, were perhaps some 

 of their loyal subjects who were sacrificed according to the 

 custom of some of the heathen nations both ancient and 

 modern. Foster, desiring to draw a comparison or rather 

 identify this mode of burial with those of the Greeks and 

 other nations, directs our attention to Herodotus, Book IY, 

 Chaps. 71 and 190. And for identifying the ceremonial with 

 the funeral of Achilles, our attention is called to the Odys- 

 sey, Book XXIV, with the burial of Hector in the Iliad, 

 Book XXIY. 



Dr. Wilson identifies the burial of the living with the 

 dead by giving an account of the burial of Black Bird, the 

 great chief of the Omahas more than 60 years ago. He 

 caught the smallpox at Washington, and dying on his way 

 home, he gave instructions to his braves around him how 

 he was to be buried. " His body was clothed with the gay- 

 est Indian robes, decorated with scalps and war eagle 

 plumes, and he was carried to one of the loftiest bluffs on 

 the Missouri. He was placed upon his favorite war horse, 

 a beautiful white steed. His bow was placed in his hand. 

 His shield, quiver, pipe, medicine-bag and tobacco-pouch 

 hung by his side, for his comfort on his journey to the happy 

 hunting grounds of the great Manitou. After a significant 

 ceremonial, the Indians placed turf and sod about the legs of 

 the horse ; gradually the pile rose, until living horse and 

 dead rider were buried together in this memorial mound, 

 which may be seen from the banks of the Missouri." 



But to come back to the mound, I now describe a sand- 

 stone disk, 1J inch in diameter and f inch thick, taken up 

 from near the skeleton in the lower part of Grave Creek 

 mound. According to Schoolcraft's analysis, communicated 



