1891.] An Indian Grave in Western New York. 121 
taining a hard discoid stone, presumably used to heat water, for 
only a few years previous to the time when this village was 
destroyed the Indians used clay kettles, which could not stand the 
heat of a fire, and they therefore heated water in them by throw- 
ing in hot stones. In and just outside the kettle was a quantity 
of large, red glass beads, of smaller glass beads, white, blue, 
green, and yellow, some spherical, some cylindrical in shape, and 
which, when strung, measured thirty feet. There was also a flat, 
white shell ornament in the shape of an isosceles triangle, with a 
hole near the apex. At the bottom of the kettle was a mass of 
decayed organic matter, which showed faint traces of interlacing 
fibres, and which was probably the remains of a basket or mat. 
The bail of the kettle was of iron, much corroded, for that metal 
is not nearly so enduring as copper or brass. The spongy frag- 
ments of a wooden handle were also found. 
Seven slender bone or shell tubes were also found, some 
almost perfect, some worn and decayed so as to require the most 
careful handling. The longest of these measured four-and-one- 
eighth inches, the shortest unbroken one three-and-three-eighths 
inches. Nearer yet to the skeleton was genuine Indian wampum, 
both white and purple, showing in places, as it rolled out of the 
earth, the original arrangement into parallel rows of five or six 
beads. This when strung measured sixty feet, and when stitched 
-on to cloth, in imitation of its arrangement at the time of burial, 
it would reach from one shoulder to the opposite hip, or several 
times around the waist of a small person. 
Part of the upper rounded shell and most of the jointed under 
shell of a good-sized turtle were also exhumed. This turtle skel- 
eton may have been part of a rattle, or it may have been a pet of 
the Indian girl, or, again, it may have been the symbol of the clan 
to which she belonged, for running through the six nations of 
the Iroquois were clans or brotherhoods taking their names from 
animals, and one of these clans was named from the turtle. 
This grave was one of a number opened in the vicinity, and 
all, while differing in detail, agreed in presenting evidences of 
European civilization in conjunction with aboriginal customs. 
Buffalo, N. Y. 
