528 BURIAL. ART. 



" nearly starve to death annually, and in winter and spring 

 are emaciated to the last degree ; the trappers used to think 

 they all eventually died from starvation, as they became old 

 and feeble."* 



As might naturally be expected, the mode of burial varies 

 much in different parts of North America. In Columbia, 

 and among many of the Prairie tribes, the dead are generally 

 sewn up in a skin or blanket, and placed either on the boughs 

 of a tree or on a scaffold; the personal property of each 

 deceased individual being placed near the body.-f- In some 

 cases the bodies were placed in canoes, and deposited among 

 the branches of trees. Many of the Eastern races, as already 

 mentioned (ante, p. 135), buried their dead under tumuli. 

 Among the Clear Lake Indians, the Carriers, etc., it was 

 usual to burn them, while in Florida they were interred in a 

 sitting posture. Among other tribes the bones of the dead 

 were collected every eight or ten years, and laid in one 

 common burial-place. 



The Eedskins are not altogether deficient in art, being able 

 to make rude carvings, and to trace equally rude drawings 

 on their wigwams, robes, etc. ; but about portraits they have 

 some curious ideas. They think that an artist acquires some 

 mysterious power over any one whose likeness he may have 

 taken ; and on one occasion, when annoyed by some Indians, 

 Mr. Kane got rid of them at once by threatening to draw any 

 one who remained. Not one ventured to do so. If the like- 

 ness is good, so much the worse : it is, they fancy, half alive 

 at the expense of the sitter. So much life, they argue, could 

 only be put in the picture by taking it away from the original. 

 Again, they fancy that if the picture were injured, by some 

 mysterious connection the original would suffer also. But 

 perhaps the oddest notion of all is recorded by Catlin. He 

 excited great commotion among the Sioux by drawing one of 



* Schoolcraft, vol. i. p. 216. t United States' Exploring Ex- 



pedition, vol. iv. p. 389. 



