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 I The Indians were excited, and conversed 

 in low tones. The cur a 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 cur a 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 



