slab was found, but on examining its under side, to his great surprise
there was the mould of a naked human figure. Three of these burned
clay sepulchers were thus raised and examined during the first year of
his occupancy, since which time none have been found until
recently.... During the past season (1872) the plow brought up another
fragment of one of these moulds, revealing the impress of a plump
human arm.

"Col. C. W. Jenkes, the superintendent of the Corundum mines, which
have recently been opened in that vicinity, advises me thus:

"'We have Indians all about us, with traditions extending back for 500
years. In this time they have buried their dead under huge piles of
stones. We have at one point the remains of 600 warriors under one
pile, but a grave has just been opened of the following construction:
A pit was dug, into which the corpse was placed, face upward; then
over it was moulded a covering of mortar, fitting the form and
features. On this was built a hot fire, which formed an entire shield
of pottery for the corpse. The breaking up of one such tomb gives a
perfect cast of the form of the occupant.'

"Colonel Jenkes, fully impressed with the value of these
archaeological discoveries, detailed a man to superintend the
exhumation, who proceeded to remove the earth from the mould, which he
reached through a layer of charcoal, and then with a trowel excavated
beneath it. The clay was not thoroughly baked, and no impression of
the corpse was left, except of the forehead and that portion of the
limbs between the ankles and the knees, and even these portions of the
mould crumbled. The body had been placed east and west, the head
toward the east. 'I had hoped,' continues Mr. McDowell, 'that the cast