of human bodies; or that the remains of a great number of individuals had at one time been consumed until, with the three last victims, the fire was suddenly extinguished by heaping over the seething mass the earth that was to keep the story for the coming of another race. We are warranted in believing that all tribes of Indians inhabiting this great valley, from the remotest times, executed by burning certain captives taken in battle; but we have no evidence that dish-shaped platforms of stone were constructed especially for that purpose. The simpler method of securing the doomed wretch to a stake or tree and there slowly roasting him amidst the wild jeers and exultations of the captors is far more consonant with well-known Indian nature and usages. But for the absence of collateral testimony the hypothesis that so-called "altars" of this class were made for the purpose of incinerating, at stated periods, the remains of the dead of the entire tribe, collected for such disposal from tree-scaffolds or bone-houses, would present many elements of plausibility. It is possible that a single tribe may have so cremated the skeletons of their deceased kinsmen before making their voluntary or compulsory exodus from this locality; but observed facts fail to sustain the idea that such a mortuary custom prevailed here generally at any time or among any people. We have the authority of La Hontan that the Indians of the Lower Mississippi "burnt their dead, keeping the bodies until they had accumulated" sufficiently in numbers for the grand ceremony, which was performed in certain places remote from their villages. But Du Pratz, whose opportunities for observation and sources of information were equal if not superior to his, positively asserts that "none of the nations of Louisiana were acquainted with the custom of burning their dead." Had this custom been in vogue to any considerable extent or for any considerable period of time it is plain that cinerary altars would be numerous and sepulchral mounds exceptional. In Cass County and the State of Illinois, so far as my knowledge extends, this strange monument is unique and without parallel among thousands of Indian mound-graves, a mystic expression, it may be, of religious fervor or superstitious frenzy.
The intrinsic evidence of many prehistoric remains of this county sustains their claim to extreme antiquity, but no work or specimen of art of a former race has yet been found here above the capacity or achievement of the typical North American Indian. And in studying the life, habits, and burial customs indicated by these relics, I can see no necessity for ascribing them to the agency of a distinct or superior race, when they express so unmistakably the known status of Indian intellect.
