is buried,
they place in the grave with him, his bow and arrows and such weapons
as they use in war, that he may be enabled to procure game and
overcome an enemy. And it has been said, that they grieve more for the
death of an infant unable to provide for itself in the world of
spirits, than for one who had attained manhood and was capable of
taking care of himself. An interesting instance of this is given by
Major Carver, and furnishes at once, affecting evidence of their
incongruous creed and of their parental tenderness. Maj. Carver says:

"Whilst I remained with them, a couple whose tent was near to mine,
lost a son about four years old. The parents were so inconsolable for
its loss, and so much affected by its death, that they pursued the
usual testimonies of grief with such uncommon vigor, as through the
weight of sorrow and loss of blood, to occasion the death of the
father. The mother, who had been hitherto absorbed in grief, no sooner
beheld her husband expire, than she dried up her tears, and appeared
cheerful and resigned.

"As I knew not how to account for so extraordinary a transition, I
took an opportunity to ask her the reason of it. She replied, that as
the child was so young when it died, and unable to support itself in
the country of spirits, both she and her husband had been apprehensive
that its situation would be far from pleasant; but no sooner did she
behold its father depart for the same place, and who not only loved
the child with the tenderest affection, but was a good hunter and [35]
able to provide plentifully for its support, than she ceased to mourn.
She added that she saw no reason to continue her tears, as the child
was now happy under the protection of a fond father; and that she had
only one wish remaining to be gratified, and that was a wish to be
herself with them."[6]

In relation to the Indian antiquities so frequently met with in
America, much doubt still exists. When and for what purpose many of
those vast mounds of earth, so common in the western country, were
heaped up, is matter of uncertainty. Mr. Jefferson has pronounced them
to be repositories of the dead; and many of them certainly were
designed for that purpose; perhaps all with which he had become
acquainted previous to the writing of his notes of Virginia. Mr.
Jefferson did not deem them worthy the name of monuments. Since the
country has been better explored, many have been discovered justly
entitled to that appella