170 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In prehistoric America cremation was practiced in a number of 

 localities. The so-called mound builder culture has revealed evi- 

 dences of its use. What were thought to be altars, platforms con- 

 sisting of a mass of baked white clay found in mounds, are now 

 known to be hearths for cremation. Such hearths are found prin- 

 cipally in Ohio and Illinois.^^ 



The disposition of the ashes is not known, but the inference is that 

 they were scattered. Among the ancient Pueblos who practiced 

 cremation the ashes were preserved in vases generally, but the cliff 

 dwellers made some other disposition of them." 



The prehistoric peoples of the lower Gila and Salt Rivers in Ari- 

 zona placed the ashes in pottery vases.'^^ 



In the Forestdale ruin, upper Salt River, Arizona, the writer found 

 instances of full-length burial and cremation on the same site. The 

 practice of cremation is similarly unequally distributed in the Pueblo 

 region and has little comparative value in ethnology. Clarence B. 

 Moore has brought together what is known on cremation in ancient 

 America, and the reader is referred to his work.''^ 



It was the habit of several California tribes (Yuma, Pomo, etc.) to 

 burn with the dead his belongings and whatever offering would be 

 made by relatives and friends. Historic instances are confined to 

 some tribes of the far Southwest and West. 



The Haida Indians of Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, 

 cremated the bodies of the dead dying away from home. The 

 Haida were said to burn the body to keep the enemy from making 

 charms with it to destroy the tribe. ^^ 



ORDEAL 



Ordeal in general is a primitive substitute for law. In the ordeal 

 by fire it is a reference of a case to the magic power of this institu- 

 tion, whose mysterious properties, not of this world, shall by burning 

 or not burning adjudicate the cause. It is a form of divination by 

 which the will of the superior powers is made known through an 

 agency thought infallible. It will be seen that there are voluntary 

 and involuntary types of ordeals, the first being a test of courage or 

 proof of righteousness and the second required by the sense of com- 

 munity or law. The system of fire ordeal was best developed in 

 India, where at one time it had quite general currency. The 

 custom goes back into antiquity, and many isolated instances of it 



»W. C. Mills. Exploration of the Mound City Group, vol. 3, Columbus, Ohio, 1922. C. O. Wil- 

 loughby. Papers Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass., vol. 8, No. 3, 1922, p. 36. 



"Walter Hough. The Museum-Gates Expedition. Ann. Rept., U. S. Nat. Mus., 1901. 



"J. Walter Fewkes. Two Summers Work in the Ancient Pueblos, 22d Ann. Rept., Bur. Amer. Eth- 

 nol.,1903. 



■»Urn-Burial in the United States. Amer. Anthrop., new ser., vol. 6, October-December, 1904, p. 

 660. See also article Cremation in the Handbook of American Indians, Bull. 30, Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 

 1907. 



MJ. G. Swan. The Haidah Indians, Smith. Contr. to Knowl., No. 267, 1874, p. 9. 



