The particular point to which I call attention is this: In Plate XI, Part II of De Bry,[21] which is reproduced in the annexed [Plate IV], is represented a very small mound, on the top of which is a large shell, and about the base a circle of arrows sticking in the ground. The artist, Le Moyne de Morgues, remarks, in reference to it, "Sometimes the deceased king of this province is buried with great solemnity, and his great cup from which he was accustomed to drink is placed on a tumulus with many arrows set about it." The tumulus in this case is evidently very small, and, as remarked by Dr. Brinton,[22] "scarcely rises to the dignity of a mound." Yet it will correspond in size with what the Naples mound was when the shell was placed upon it; nevertheless the latter, when completed, formed an oval tumulus 132 feet long, 98 feet wide, and 10 feet high.
It is therefore quite probable that Le Moyne figures the mound at the time it reached the point where the shell cup was to be deposited, when, in all likelihood, certain ceremonies were to be observed and a pause in the work occurred. Whether this suggestion be correct or not, the cut and the statement of Judge Henderson furnish some evidence in regard to the presence of these articles in the mounds, and point to the people by whom they were placed there.
Colonel Norris opened a number of the ordinary small burial mounds found on the bluffs and higher grounds of Pike and Brown Counties, Illinois, which were found to be constructed in the usual method of this district; that is, with a layer of hard, mortar-like substance, or clay and ashes mixed, covering the skeletons. The positions of the skeletons varied, as we have seen is the case in other localities. The number of intrusive burials was unusually large here. In a number of cases where there were intrusive burials near the surface, no bones, or but the slightest fragments of the bones of the original burial, could be found, although there were sure indications that the mounds were built and had apparently been used for this purpose. These mounds also present evidence of the intrusion of an element from one people into the country of another. On the farm of Mr. Edward Welch, Brown County, Illinois, is the group of mounds shown in [Fig. 16]. This consists of conical and pyramidal mounds, and the small earthen rings designated house sites. The form of the larger mounds is shown in [Fig. 17]. Although standing on a bluff some 200 feet above the river bottom, it is evident at the first glance that these works belong to the southern type and were built by the people who erected those of the Cahokia group or farther south. No opportunity was allowed to investigate the burial mounds or house sites, but slight explorations made in the larger mounds sufficed to reveal the fire-beds so common in southern mounds, thus confirming the impression given by their form. It is probable that these mark the point of the extreme northern extension of the southern mound-building tribes. A colony, probably from the numerous and strong tribe located on Cahokia Creek around the giant Monk's mound, pushed its way thus far and formed a settlement, but, after contending for a time with the hostile tribes which pressed upon it from the north, was compelled to return towards the south.
Passing to the northeastern portion of Missouri, which, as heretofore stated, we include in the North Mississippi or Illinois district, we find a material change in the character of the burial mounds, so marked, in fact, that it is very doubtful whether they should be embraced in the district named. Although differing in minor particulars, the custom of inclosing the remains of the dead in some kind of a receptacle of stone, over which was heaped the earth forming the mound, appears to have prevailed very generally.
The region has been but partially explored, yet it is probable the following examples will furnish illustrations of most of the types to be found in it.
From an article by Messrs. Hardy and Scheetz in the Smithsonian Report for 1881,[23] we learn the following particulars regarding the burial mounds of Ralls County:
Occasionally an isolated one is found, but almost invariably they are in groups of three to ten or more. They are usually placed along the crest of a ridge, but when in the bottoms or on a level bluff they are in direct lines or gentle curves. They are very numerous, being found in almost every bottom and on nearly every bluff. They are usually circular and from 2 to 12 feet high, and are composed wholly of earth, wholly of stone, or of the two combined. Where stone was used the plan seems to have been first to pave the natural surface with flat stones, in one or two thicknesses, for a foundation. In one case the stones were thrown together indiscriminately. Human remains are almost invariably found in them. The bones are generally very much decayed, though each bone is found almost entire except those of the head. This seems to have always rested on a stone, and to have been covered by one or more stones, so that it is always found in a crushed condition. In rare instances stone implements, pipes, etc., are found in the mounds. The remains found in tumuli wholly of stone are much more decayed than in those of mixed material.