NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY. 
13 
and similar objects, are very common, weapons are but rarely found; 
a fact which, in the opinion of Dr. Wilson, “ indicates a totally dif- 
“ ferent condition of society and mode of thought” from that of the 
present Indian. Plates of mica are very generally present, and in 
some cases the skeleton is entirely covered by them. 
What now is the “ idea’ ’ implied in these, often gigantic tumuli, 
and in the disposition of the corpse? The reason suggested by 
M. Troy on for the contracted position of the body, has already been 
mentioned in this Journal. Dr. Wilson appears to regard the 
tumulus as a simple development of that little heap of earth, “ dis- 
“ placed by interment, which still to thousands suffices as the most 
“ touching memorial of the dead.” Probable as these suggestions 
may appear, we confess that if we were to express an opinion we 
should lean rather to the opinion of the illustrious Swedish Anti¬ 
quary, Prof. N illson, and imagine that the grave was but an adapta¬ 
tion, a copy, or a development of the dwelling-place. Unable to 
imagine a future altogether different from the present, or a world 
quite unlike our own, primitive nations seem always to have buried 
with their dead those things which in life they valued most; with 
ladies, their ornaments; with chiefs, their weapons, and sometimes 
also their wives. They burned the house with its owner; the grave 
was literally the dwelling of the dead. According to Prof. Kills on, 
when a great man died, he was placed in his favourite seat, food 
and drink were arranged before him, his weapons were placed 
at hand, and his house was closed, sometimes for ever, sometimes 
to be opened once more, when his wife or his children had joined 
him in the land of spirits. The ancient tumuli in Northern 
Europe, which never contain metal, consist usually of a passage 
leading into a central vault, in which the dead “ sit.” At Gold- 
havn, in the year 1830, a grave of this kind was opened, and 
numerous skeletons were found sitting on low seats round the 
■walls, each with their weapons and ornaments. The description 
given by Capt. Graah of the Eskimo “ winter-house,” and Scores- 
by’s account of those belonging to the Greenlanders, agree close¬ 
ly with these graves, even to the fact that the passage points gene¬ 
rally to the south or east, but never to the north. In a few 
cases tumuli have been examined which contained weapons, imple¬ 
ments, ornaments, pottery, &c., but no human bones; in short, every 
indication of life, but no trace of death. Ernan also tells us that 
the graves of Tartars resemble their dwellings, a statement which 
Kills on apparently considers to be true of all primitive nations. In 
the Sulu Islands it is the custom to desert any house in which a 
great man has died,* and Captain Cook mentions his having seen at 
Mooa certain houses raised on mounds, in which he was told “ the 
dead had been buried.” 
Certain small tumuli found in America have already been re- 
* St. John’s Life in the Forests of the Far East, Yol. ii. p. 217. 
