Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/122

 fragments by force, I suspect that these mounds are merely incidental, arising from the demolition of the circular dwelling in which the deceased had been interred, a custom which was formerly practised by the Natchez, Cherokees, and other of the natives. Indeed, the sacrifices and offerings which the Indians formerly made to the manes of the deceased father, were sometimes almost ruinous to his family, though no longer blackened by the immolation of human victims. Father Charlevoix[81] relates, that stopping, as he descended the Mississippi, at a village of Ouyapes (or Wyapes), the same with the Quapaws (or, as they call themselves, O-guah-pas), then living near the confluence of White river with the Mississippi, he found them in great distress from the ravages of the small-pox. Their burying-place appeared "like a forest of poles and posts newly set up, and on which there hung all manner of things: there is every thing which the savages use." The men and women both continued lamenting throughout the night, and repeating without ceasing, "Nihahani, as the Illinois do, and in the same tone." A mother weeping over the grave of her son, poured upon it a great quantity of Sagamitty (or hominy). Another kindled a fire near one of the tombs,[82] probably for the purpose of sacrificing food, as I have seen practised by the Pawnee-Rikasrees[83] of the Missouri.

The aborigines of this territory, now commonly called Arkansas or Quapaws and Osarks, do not at this time