198 Aboriginal Funereal Customs in the United States. {[ April, 
surface of the grave was level with the surrounding ground, and 
its dimensions were defined by stones set on edge in the soil, 
forming a parallelogram five or six feet in length and from two 
to four in breadth. The ragged edges of the slabs projected 
above the surface from six inches to eighteen, and occasionally a 
head-stone reached to the height of two feet. On none of the 
latter, however, has an inscription of any kind ever been observed 
differing in this respect from the wooden adjedatigs of the Da- 
kotas. | 
Many interesting graves have been discovered and examined 
throughout the Cañon of the Rio-Mancos, in Southwestern Colo- 
rado. Captain John Moss, of that State, unearthed from one of 
these a perfect skull and some fragments of other bones of a hu- 
man skeleton. From another he took several entire and curi- 
ously shaped vessels of pottery,! now in possession of Hayden's 
United States Geological Survey of the Territories, at Washing- 
ton. It would appear from this that the deceased were supplied 
with vessels of food and drink to assist them on their journey to 
the mysterious hereafter. In addition to this custom, great 
quantities of pottery were strewn or broken over the surfaces of + 
graves, in honor of the departed. Occasionally large vases or 
other vessels are found in a state of tolerable preservation, OF, 
indeed, entire ; these had been placed there by the friends of the 
deceased ; but whether they were originally full of food, it is dif- 
ficult to determine. In the neighborhood of Aztec Springs are 
long series of graves extending for miles along the valley west of 
the great Mesa Verde. Ina particular spot, an arroyo has cut 
through one of these graves, showing a vertical section of it. 
About four feet from the level of the valley a quantity of broken 
pottery and charred wood may yet be seen, — the former proba- 
bly at one time constituting perfect food vessels, — arranged at 
the head of the corpse; but the skeleton had disappeared after 
the exposure of many years. 
Near the beginning of the Cañon of the Hovenweep, 4 skele- 
ton was seen partially protruding from the eastern bank of this 
arroyo. It was lying about three feet below the surface, the 
face pointing eastward, the back of the skull only being visible. 
On removing it from the bank the skull fell to pieces, and me 
two or three of the long bones could be found, the rest oe 
skeleton having crumbled to dust. Sage-brush (Artemisia), page 
growing over the grave, indicating a growth of at least a hund 
1 See Figure 12, Pl. ix., American Naturalist for August, 1876. 
. 
