generally made under their thatch houses or very near thereto. The
house where one died was always torn down, removed, rebuilt, or
abandoned. The wailing, talks, &c., were in their own jargon; none
else could understand, and they seemingly knew but little of its
meaning (if there was any meaning in it); it simply seemed to be the
promptings of grief, without sufficient intelligence to direct any
ceremony; each seemed to act out his own impulse"



STONE GRAVES OR CISTS.


These are of considerable interest, not only from their somewhat rare
occurrence, except in certain localities, but from the manifest care
taken by the survivors to provide for the dead what they considered a
suitable resting-place. A number of cists have been found in
Tennessee, and are thus described by Moses Fiske: [Footnote: Trans.
Amer. Antiq. Soc., 1820 vol. 1, p. 302]

"There are many burying grounds in West Tennessee with regular graves.
They dug them 12 or 18 inches deep, placed slabs at the bottom ends
and sides, forming a kind of stone coffin, and, after laying in the
body, covered it over with earth."

It may be added that, in 1873, the writer assisted at the opening of a
number of graves of men of the reindeer period, near Solutre, in
France, and they were almost identical in construction with those
described by Mr. Fiske, with the exception that the latter were
deeper; this, however, may be accounted for if it is considered how