HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



mat-covered lodges, termed "temples" by these writers. Other inter- 

 ments were made in excavations, the bodies being bound about in 

 skins or bark. The remains first placed in the "temples" were prob- 

 ably later deposited in graves, and in this connection it is remarkable 

 that not more than two or three small cemeteries are known to have 

 been encountered within the bounds of the ancient confederacy which 

 extended over the greater part of tidewater Virginia. 



The northeastern part of the present North Carolina was the 

 home of the most southerly tribes of the Algonquian stock, among 

 which were the Roanoke, the first tribe to become known to the 

 members of the English expedition which landed on the island of 

 Wococon during the summer of 1584. The watercolor drawings made 

 at this time by John White, and now preserved in the British Museum, 

 include one which bears this inscription: "The Tombe of their Che- 

 rounes or cheif personages their flesh clene taken off from the bones 

 save the skynn and heare of theire heads w ch flesh is dried and en- 

 folded in matts laide at theire feete, their bones also being made dry 

 or covered w th deare skynns not altering their forme or proportion. 

 With theire Kywash, which is an Image of wood keeping the deade." 

 Ten bodies are here represented in an extended position, and at their 

 feet are four folded mats as mentioned in the legend. Beneath the 

 platform are two skins spread on the ground, and immediately in 

 front is a small fire. The idol, or "theire Kywash," is placed on the 

 platform with the remains. The tombs erected by the Powhatan 

 tribes were probably similar to this. 



At the present time there stands near the shore of Scott lake, in 

 the valley of the Santee about nine miles southwest of Summerton, 

 Clarendon county, South Carolina, a conical mound of earth. Scat- 

 tered over the surrounding area are many fragments of pottery and 

 other traces of an Indian settlement, but the surface has been modified 

 by freshets, and probably the greater part of the surface as it was 

 during the period of Indian occupancy has been washed away or 

 covered by alluvium. Other smaller mounds have probably disap- 

 peared. This evidently marks the position of one of the more impor- 

 tant Santee villages, and in a direct line was a little more than sixty 

 miles northwest of Charleston. The settlement may have been visited 

 by Lawson during the early part of 1701, and it is even possible that 

 the mound was the one to which he referred when he wrote: "Near 

 to these Cabins are several Tombs made after the fashion of the 

 Indians; the largest and chief est of them was the Sepulchre of the 

 late Indian King of the Santees, a Man of Great Power. . . The 

 manner of their Interment is thus: A Mole or Pyramid of Earth is 



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