A Reputed Changeling
A REPUTED CHANGELING, or, THREE SEVENTH YEARS TWO CENTURIES AGO PREFACE I do not think I have here forced the hand of history except by giving Portchester to two imaginary Rectors, and by a little injustice to her whom Princess Anne termed 'the brick-bat woman.' The trial is not according to present rules, but precedents for its irregularities are to be found in the doings of the seventeenth century, notably in the trial of Spencer Cowper by the same Judge Hatsel, and I have done my best to represent the habits of those country gentry who were not infected by the evils of the later Stewart reigns. There is some doubt as to the proper spelling of Portchester, but, judging by analogy, the t ought not to be omitted.
that first occupied it), would prove beyond doubt that it is
a very old grave.
The grave was situated due east and west, in size about 9 by
6 feet, the line being distinctly marked by the difference
in the color of the soil. It was dug in rich, black loam,
and filled around the bodies with white or yellow sand,
which I suppose was carried from the river-bank, 200 yards
distant. The skeletons approximated the walls of the grave,
and contiguous to them was a dark-colored earth, and so
decidedly different was this from all surrounding it, both
in quality and odor, that the line of the bodies could be
readily traced. The odor of this decomposed earth, which had
been flesh, was similar to clotted blood, and would adhere
in lumps when compressed in the hand.
This was not the grave of the Indian warriors; in those we
find pots made of earth or stone, and all the implements of
war, for the warrior had an idea that after he arose from
the dead he would need, in the "hunting-grounds beyond," his
bow and arrow, war-hatchet, and scalping-knife.
The facts set forth will doubtless convince every Mason who
will carefully read the account of this remarkable burial
that the American Indians were in possession of at least
some of the mysteries of our order, and that it was
A REPUTED CHANGELING, or, THREE SEVENTH YEARS TWO CENTURIES AGO PREFACE I do not think I have here forced the hand of history except by giving Portchester to two imaginary Rectors, and by a little injustice to her whom Princess Anne termed 'the brick-bat woman.' The trial is not according to present rules, but precedents for its irregularities are to be found in the doings of the seventeenth century, notably in the trial of Spencer Cowper by the same Judge Hatsel, and I have done my best to represent the habits of those country gentry who were not infected by the evils of the later Stewart reigns. There is some doubt as to the proper spelling of Portchester, but, judging by analogy, the t ought not to be omitted.