1919] BARRETT AND HAWKES, KRATZ CREEK MOUNDS. 97 



the ways of the first people, and omitted many songs and dances. 

 The sacred earth, too, had faded, so many moons had passed, and 

 it no longer gleamed like the setting sun, but shone like the waning 

 moonlight. So they used much of it, that the bones they buried 

 might not be offended by being handled twice. Two prisoners were 

 burned at the stake that the souls of the departed might have fitting 

 conduct on their long journey. And around all they scattered a 

 circle of shining red sand, like war paint, that the original color of 

 the sacred earth might be restored. 



"Then they passed the bundles of bones down into the hole, and 

 placed them on the soft blanket of shining sands. There were more 

 than I could count. In the place of honor they put the bundle of 

 their war chief who had been slain by an arrow. Then the priests 

 covered the bundles with more sacred earth, and the people tramped 

 it down. 



"Above they built a great fire to light the spirits on their long 

 trail to the land of the dead, and when it had died down, they placed 

 more sacred earth upon the pile, and kindled another fire. Many 

 sleeps the ceremony lasted, and before they finished, two people 

 died in the tribe, and were buried in the top of the mound. These 

 they bound in skins, with their legs drawn up beneath them, and 

 securely tied, so that they could not disturb the bones resting be- 

 neath. Then the people left, and all was silent. 



III. 



"Many moons passed by, and again the people came in great 

 numbers. The river was filled with their canoes as far as the 

 eye could see. They bore the body of their chief, wrapped in bark, 

 and beside it, that of their medicine man, whom the spirits had 

 taken. 



"A young girl sat in the stern of the canoe, and the serpent 

 spirit whispered to me that she and I were the only mortals who 

 knew the secrets of the first builders of the animal piles, for he 

 himself had instructed her. 



"She led the people into the woods, near the pile where I stood. 

 Here she stopped, and with a sacred wand she traced in the black 

 earth the picture of a great panther. Then she bade the people 



