
THE MOUND BUILDERS OF TENNESSEE. 69 
posed of an entire sea-shell, punctured, so as to admit of the 
passage of the thread upon which they were strung. 
In a most carefully constructed stone sarcophagus with the 
face looking to the setting sun, a beautiful shell ornament 
was found resting upon the breast bone. It had a central 
sun, and the large circle around this curiously divided into 
three figures or equal parts, with two outer rows of suns (nine 
suns in the outer row, making twenty-three suns in these two 
rows), making with the central sun, twenty-four suns in all ; 
and with stars encircling the suns. This ornament upon its 
concave figured surface, had been covered with red paint; 
upon the back the convex plane surface was smooth and plain, 
with the exception of three crescentie marks. 
The material of which it is composed was derived from a 
large flat sea-shell; no fresh water muscle, in any part of the 
waters of Tennessee and of the surrounding States, could 
furnish a uniform thickness of flat shell equal to this; and 
the regularity of its convexity and concavity, as well as the 
perfection of all its parts, and the uniformity of its thickness 
everywhere, are proofs that it must have been derived from 
_a very large shell from the sea coast. This skeleton had 
around the neck, arms, waist and ankles, numerous beads of 
various kinds. The smaller beads were all of the small sea- 
shells. This stone grave had been constructed with such 
care, that little or no earth had fallen in and the skeleton 
rested as it were in a perfect vault. The head, which was 
evidently that’ of a woman, was in a remarkable state of pres- 
ervation. 
From the nature of the ornament upon the breast, as well 
as from the care with whieh the sarcophagus had been con- 
structed, we judged that this was the priestess of the sun. 
In the grave of a child, near the right side of the grave of 
the priestess of the sun, and at the foot of the grave of a 
giga gantic old Indian, seven feet in length, and of great age, 
as manifested by the loss of teeth, and the absorption of the 
alveoli, a curious Paini black idol was exhumed. The fea- 
