injuries which must have been of a fatal character."

Writing of the Choctaws, Bartram, [Footnote: Bartram's Travels, 1791,
p. 513.] in alluding to the ossuary or bone-house, mentions that so
soon as this is filled a general inhumation takes place, in this
manner.

"Then the respective coffins are borne by the nearest relatives of the
deceased to the place of interment, where they are all piled one upon
another in the form of a pyramid, and the conical hill of earth heaped
above. The funeral ceremonies are concluded with the solemnization of
a festival called the feast of the dead."

Mr. Florian Gianque, of Cincinnati, Ohio, furnishes an account of a
somewhat curious mound burial which had taken place in the Miami
Valley of Ohio.

"A mound was opened in this locality, some years ago, containing a
central corpse in a sitting posture, and over thirty skeletons buried
around it in a circle, also in a sitting posture but leaning against
one another, tipped over towards the right facing inwards. I did not
see this opened, but have seen the mounds and many ornaments, awls,
&c., said to have been found near the central body. The parties
informing me are trustworthy."

As an example of interment, unique, so far as known, and interesting
as being _sui generis_, the following is presented, with the
statement that the author, Dr J. Mason Spainhour, of Lenoir, N.C.,
bears the reputation of an observer of undoubted integrity, whose
facts as given may not be doubted.