210 Distinctive Characteristics of the 



use among the Indians of the Bay of Honduras, who had 

 learned to balance themselves so dexterously standing upon a 

 log, as to be able in this position to pursue their customary 

 occupation of fishing in the adjacent sea. 



In fine, his long contact with European arts, has furnished 

 the Indian with no additional means of contending with the 

 watery element ; and his log canoe and boat of birch bark, 

 are precisely the same as at the landing of Columbus. 



5. Majiner of Interment. Veneration for the dead is a 

 sentiment natural to man, whether civilized or savage : but 

 the manner of expressing it, and of performing the rites of 

 sepulture, differ widely in different nations. No oflfence excites 

 greater exasperation in the breast of the Indian than the vio- 

 lation of the graves of his people ; and he has even been 

 known to disinter the bones of his ancestors, and bear them 

 with him to a great distance, when circumstances have com- 

 pelled him to make a permanent change of residence. 



But the manner of inhumation is so different from that 

 practised by the rest of mankind, and at the same time so 

 prevalent among the American natives, as to constitute another 

 means of identifying them as parts of a single and peculiar 

 race. This practice consists in burying the dead in the sit- 

 ting posture ; the legs being flexed against the abdomen, the 

 arms also bent, and the chin supported on the palms of the 

 hands. The natives of Patagonia, Brazil and Guayana ; the 

 insular and other Charibs, the Florida tribes, the great chain 

 of Lenape nations, the inhabitants of both sides of the Rocky 

 mountains, and those also of Canada and the vast Northwest- 

 ern region, all conform, with occasional exceptions, to this 

 conventional rite. So also with the demi-civilized commu- 

 nities from the most distant epochs ; for the ancient Peruvi- 

 ans, to whom we have already so frequently referred, pos- 

 sessed this singular usage, as is verified by their numberless 

 remains in the sepulchres of Titicaca. They did not, hoAV- 

 ever, bury their dead, but placed them on the floors of their 

 tombs, seated, and sowed up in sacks. The later Peruvians 

 of the Inca race followed the same custom, sometimes inhu- 



