Page:Notes on the State of Virginia (1802).djvu/150

136 any of them, as if made with bullets, arrows, or other weapons. I conjectured that in this barrow might have been a thouſand ſkeletons. Every one will readily ſeize the circumſtances above related, which militate againſt the opinion, that it covered the bones only of perſons fallen in battle; and againſt the tradition alſo, which would make it the common ſepulchre of a town, in which the bodies were placed upright, and touching each other. Appearances certainly indicate that it has derived both origin and growth from the accuſtomary collection of bones, and depoſition of them together; that the firſt collection had been depoſited on the common ſurface of the earth, a few ſtones put over it, and then a covering of earth, that the ſecond had been laid on this, had covered more or leſs of it in proportion to the number of bones, and was then alſo cover e d with earth; and ſo on. The following are the particular circumſtances which give it this aſpect. 1. The number of bones. 2. Their confuſed poſition. 3. Their being in different ſtrata. 4. The ſtrata in one part having no correſpondence with thoſe in another. 5. The d e i fferent ſtates of decay in theſe ſtrata, which ſeem to indicate a difference in the time of inhumation. 6. The exiſtence of infant bones among them.

But on whatever occaſion they may have been made, they are of conſiderable notoriety among the Indians: for a party paſſing, about thirty years ago, through the part of the country where this barrow is, went through the woods directly to it, without any inſtructions or enquiry, and having ſtaid about it ſome time, with expreſſions which were conſtrued to be thoſe of ſorrow, they returned to the high road, which they had left about half a