10 O. C. Marsh—Description of an Ancient Sepulchral Mound. 
cent) which is much higher than some have supposed ever ex- 
isted among rude nations. Another point of special interest in 
this mound is the evidence it affords that the regular method of 
burial among the mound-builders was sometimes omitted, and 
the remains interred in a hurried and careless manner. This 
was the case with eleven of the skeletons exhumed in the course 
of our explorations, a remarkable fact, which appears to be 
without a precedent in the experience of previous investigators. 
It should be mentioned in this connection that nearly all of 
these remains were those of women and children. Their hur- 
ried and careless burial might seem to indicate a want of respect 
on the part of their surviving friends, were there not ample evi- 
dence to prove that reverence for the dead was a prominent 
characteristic of the mound-builders. It is not unlikely that in 
this instance some unusual cause, such as poms or war, may 
deserve notice, as they far —— in number = variety any 
hitherto discovered in'a single mo The ve, moreover, 
that, if in this instance the rites of. regular burial were denied 
rs rem wis supposed future wants wer Happ provided 
collected for burial, sometimes long after death. The interest- 
ing age of. weapons, which were found with these detached 
ould seem to imply that in this case the remains and 
sl ‘of a hunter or warrior of disctinction, recovered after 
long exposure, had been buried together.” 
The last three interments in this mound were performed with 
great care, as already stated, and in strict accordance with the 
usual custom of the mound-builders. The onl int of par- 
ticular interest in regard to them is the connection which ap- 
ars to exist between some of the skeletons and the charred 
uman bones found above them. Similar deposits of partially 
burned bones, supposed to be human, have in one or two in- 
stances been observed on the altars of sacrificial mounds, and 
occasionally in mounds devoted to sepulture, but their connec- 
tion with the human remains buried in the latter, if indeed any 
existed, appears to have been overlooked. Our ex xplorations, 
which were yey ae and systematically conducted, clearly 
demonstrated that in these instances the incremation had taken 
place directly oe "thé tomb, and evidently before the regular 
interment was completed: taking these facts in connection with 
what the researches of other investigators have made known 
A similar custom still prevails among some tribes of western Indians, 
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