An Introduction to the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians | Page 5

trees, in boxes or canoes, the two latter receptacles
supported on scaffolds or posts, or on the ground. Occasionally baskets
have been used to contain the remains of children, these being hung to
trees.
5th. 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 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.

INHUMATION.
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.
"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 weed to grow upon the grave, and frequently
visited it and made lamentation." [Footnote: Hist. Indian Tribes of the
United States, 1853, part 3, p 183.]
This account may be found in Schoolcraft.
In Jones [Footnote: Antiq. of Southern Indians, 1873, pp 108-110] is
the following interesting account from Lawson, 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 bundle 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 go into the town, and from the backs
of the first young men they meet strip such blankets and matchcoats as
they deem suitable for their purpose. In these the dead body is wrapped
and then covered with two or three mats made of rushes or cane. The
coffin is made of woven reeds or hollow canes tied fast at both ends.
When everything is prepared for the interment, the corpse is carried
from the house in which it has been lying into the orchard of
peach-trees and is there deposited in another bundle. Seated upon mats
are there congregated the family and tribe of the deceased and invited
guests. The medicine man, or conjurer, having enjoined silence, then
pronounces a funeral oration, during which he recounts the exploits of
the deceased, his valor, skill, love of country, property, and influence,

alludes to the void caused by his death, and counsels those who remain
to supply his place by following in his footsteps; pictures the happiness
he will enjoy in the land of spirits to which he has gone, and concludes
his address by an allusion to the prominent traditions of his tribe."
Let us here pause to remind the reader that this custom has prevailed
throughout the civilized world up to the present day--a custom, in the
opinion of many, "more honored in the breach than the observance."
"At last [says Mr. Lawson], the corpse is brought away from that hurdle
to the grave by four young men, attended by the relations, the king, old
men, and all the nation. When they come to the sepulchre, which is
about six feet deep and eight feet long, having at each end (that is, at
the head and foot) a light-wood or pitch-pine fork driven close down
the sides of the grave firmly into the ground (these two forks are to
contain a ridgepole, as you shall understand presently), before they lay
the corpse into the grave, they cover the bottom two or three time over
with the bark of trees; then they let down the corpse (with two belts that
the Indians carry their burdens withal) very leisurely upon the said
barks; then they lay over a pole of the same wood in the two forks, and
having a great many pieces of pitch- pine logs about two foot and a half
long, they stick them in the sides of the grave down each end and near
the top, through of where (sic) the other ends lie in the