A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians | Page 2

and need not be repeated at this time. It has seemed undesirable
at present to enter into any discussion regarding the causes which may
have led to the adoption of any particular form of burial or coincident
ceremonies, the object of this paper being simply to furnish illustrative
examples, and request further contributions from observers; for,
notwithstanding the large amount of material already at hand, much
still remains to be done, and careful study is needed before any attempt
at a thorough analysis of mortuary customs can be made. It is owing to
these facts and from the nature of the material gathered that the paper
must be considered more as a compilation than an original effort, the
writer having done little else than supply the thread to bind together the
accounts furnished.
It is proper to add that all the material obtained will eventually be
embodied in a quarto volume, forming one of the series of
Contributions to North American Ethnology prepared under the
direction of Maj. J.W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology,
Smithsonian Institution, from whom, since the inception of the work,
most constant encouragement and advice has been received, and to
whom all American ethnologists owe a debt of gratitude which can
never be repaid.
Having thus called attention to the work, the classification of the
subject may be given, and examples furnished of the burial ceremonies
among different tribes, calling especial attention to similar or almost
analogous customs among the peoples of the Old World.
For our present purpose the following provisional arrangement of
burials may be adopted, although further study may lead to some
modifications.
CLASSIFICATION OF BURIAL. 1st. By INHUMATION in pits,
graves, or holes in the ground, stone graves or cists, in mounds, beneath
or in cabins, wigwams, houses or lodges, or in caves.
2d. By EMBALMMENT or a process of mummifying, the remains
being afterwards placed in the earth, caves, mounds, boxes on scaffolds,
or in charnel-houses.
3d. By DEPOSITION of remains in urns.

4th. By SURFACE BURIAL, the remains being placed in hollow trees
or logs, pens, or simply covered with earth, or bark, or rocks forming
cairns.
5th. By CREMATION, or partial burning, generally on the surface of
the earth, occasionally beneath, the resulting bones or ashes being
placed in pits in the ground, in boxes placed on scaffolds or trees, in
urns, sometimes scattered.
6th. By AERIAL SEPULTURE, the bodies being left in lodges, houses,
cabins, tents, deposited on scaffolds or trees, in boxes or canoes, the
two latter receptacles supported on scaffolds or posts, or placed on the
ground. Occasionally baskets have been used to contain the remains of
children, these being hung to trees.
7th. By AQUATIC BURIAL, beneath the water, or in canoes, which
were turned adrift.
These heads might, perhaps, be further subdivided, but the above seem
sufficient for all practical needs.
The use of the term burial throughout this paper is to be understood in
its literal significance, the word being derived from the Teutonic
Anglo-Saxon "_birgan_," to conceal or hide away.
In giving descriptions of different burials and attendant ceremonies, it
has been deemed expedient to introduce entire accounts as furnished, in
order to preserve continuity of narrative, and in no case has the relator's
language been changed except to correct manifest unintentional, errors
of spelling.

INHUMATION.
PIT BURIAL The commonest mode of burial among North American
Indians has been that of interment in the ground, and this has taken
place in a number of different ways; the following will, however, serve
as good examples of the process:
One of the simplest forms is thus noted by Schoolcraft:[1]
The Mohawks of New York made a large round hole in which the body
was placed upright or upon its haunches, after which it was covered
with timber, to support the earth which they lay over, and thereby kept
the body from being pressed. They then raised the earth in a round hill

over it. They always dressed the corpse in all its finery, and put
wampum and other things into the grave with it; and the relations
suffered not grass nor any wood to grow upon the grave, and frequently
visited it and made lamentation.
In Jones[2] is the following interesting account from Lawson[3] of the
burial customs of the Indians formerly inhabiting the Carolinas:
Among the Carolina tribes the burial of the dead was accompanied with
special ceremonies, the expense and formality attendant upon the
funeral according with the rank of the deceased. The corpse was first
placed in a cane hurdle and deposited in an outhouse made for the
purpose, where it was suffered to remain for a day and a night, guarded
and mourned over by the nearest relatives with disheveled hair. Those
who are to officiate at the funeral