216 ANCIENT MODES OF BURIAL. 



different condition of society and mode of thought " from those 

 of the present Indian. 



Certain small tumuli found in America have been regarded 

 as the remains of mud huts. Mr. Dille* has examined and 

 described some small tumuli observed by him in Missouri. 

 He dug into several, but never succeeded in finding anything 

 except coal, char, and a few pieces of pottery, whence he 

 concluded that they were the remains of mud houses, f 

 The Mandans, Minatarees, and some other tribes also built 

 their huts of earth, resting on a framework of wood. 



On the other hand, there are some tumuli to which it 

 would seem that this explanation is quite inapplicable, and 

 which are full of human remains. This was long supposed 

 to be the case with the great Grave Creek Mound, which 

 indeed was positively stated by Atwater, J to be full of human 

 remains. This has turned out to be an error, but the state- 

 ment is not the less true as regards other mounds. In con- 

 junction with them may be mentioned the " bone pits/' many 

 of which are described by Mr. Squier.g " One of these pits, 

 discovered some years ago in the town of Cambria, Niagara 

 county, was estimated to contain the bones of several thou- 

 sand individuals. Another which I visited in the town of 

 Clarence, Erie county, contained not less than four hundred 

 skeletons." A tumulus described by Mr. Jefferson in his 

 " Notes on Virginia," was estimated to contain the skeletons 

 of a thousand individuals, but in this case the number was 

 perhaps exaggerated. 



The description given by various old writers of the solemn 

 "Festival of the Dead" satisfactorily explains these large 

 collections of bones. It seems that every eight or ten years 



* Smithsonian Contributions, vol. i. p. 136. 



f Archaeologia Americana, vol. i. p. 223. 



t See also Lapham, I.e. p. 80. 



I.e. pp. 25, 56, 57, 68, 71, 73, 106, 107. Squier and Davis, I.e. p. 118, etc. 



