Yarrow as practiced by the Indians were in vogue among the former.
It was supposed for a long time that their chief and almost only
place of depositing their dead was in the burial mounds, but more
thorough explorations have revealed the fact that near most mound
villages are cemeteries, often of considerable extent.

The chief value of this fact in this connection is that it forms
one item of evidence against the theory held by some antiquarians
that the mound-builders were Mexicans, as the usual mode of
disposing of the dead by the latter was cremation. [Footnote:
Clavigero, Hist. Mex., Cullen's transl., I, 325; Torquemada,
Monarq. Ind., I, p.60, etc.] According to Brasseur de Bourbourg
the Toltecs also practiced cremation. [Footnote: H.H. Bancroft,
Native Races, vol. 2, 1882, p. 609.]

REMOVAL OF THE FLESH BEFORE BURIAL.--This practice appears to have
been followed quite generally by both Indians and mound-builders.

That it was followed to a considerable extent by the mound
builders of various sections is shown by the following evidence:

The confused masses of human bones frequently found in mounds show
by their relation to each other that they must have been gathered
together after the flesh had been removed, as this condition could
not possibly have been assumed after burial in their natural
state. Instances of this kind are so numerous and well known that
it is scarcely necessary to present any evidence in support of the
statement. The well-known instance referred to by Jefferson in his
"Notes on Virginia" [Footnote: Fourth Am. ed., 1801, p. 143; p.
146, in 8th ed.] is one in point. "The appearance," he tells us,