278 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



stone, we saw underneath a skull. The reader may 

 imagine our satisfaction. We made the Indians 

 throw away crowbar and machete, and work with 

 their hands. I was exceedingly anxious to get the 

 skeleton out entire, but it was impossible to do so. 

 It had no covering or envelope of any kind ; the 

 earth was thrown upon it as in a common grave, 

 and as this was removed it all fell to pieces. It was 

 in a sitting posture, with its face toward the setting 

 sun. The knees were bent against the stomach, the 

 arms doubled from the elbow, and the hands clasp- 

 ing the neck or supporting the head. The skull 

 was unfortunately broken, but the facial bone was en- 

 tire, with the jaws and teeth, and the enamel on the 

 latter still bright, but when the skull was handed up 

 many of them fell out. The Indians picked up ev- 

 ery bone and tooth, and handed them to me. It 

 was strangely interesting, with the ruined structures 

 towering around us, after a lapse of unknown ages, 

 to bring to light these buried bones. Whose were 

 they ? The Indians were excited, and conversed 

 in low tones. The cura interpreted what they 

 said ; and the burden of it was, " They are the 

 bones of our kinsman," and "What will our kins- 

 man say at our dragging forth his bones 1" But for 

 the cura they would have covered them up and left 

 the sepulchre. 



In collecting the bones, one of the Indians picked 

 up a small white object, which would have escaped 

 any but an Indian's eye. It was made of deer's 



