THl^. PAINTING OF HHMAN BONK^^ AMOlSTG THK INDIANS. ()\S 



ill a wooden I)ox, evory year oiliiii;- and eleansinu: tlieiu ; by tbese means pre- 

 serve tlieiii for many ajies. so that you may see an Indian in i)ossessi()ii of the 

 )ones of bis jirandfatber, or some of his felations of a longer antiquity. 



In Floriila bone painting seems to have been practiced extensively 

 md from an early period. The cnstom is mentioned in this part of 

 he conntry by Garcilasso de la Vega and by Herrera. Romans (p. 

 ^8) describes it among" the Choctaw as follows : 



The day fof tlie linrial] lieing come, the friends and relations assemble near 

 :he stage, a lire is made, and the respectable operator, after the body is taken 

 town [from the stage on wbicb it has lain for two to four months 1. with his 

 lails tears the remaining tlesh off the bones and throws it with the entrails 

 nto the fire, where it is consunu'd ; Then he scrapes the bones and burns the 

 scrapings likewise. The head being i)ainted red with vermilion, is, with the 

 •est of the bones, put into a neatly made chest (which for a chief is also made 

 ■ed) and deiutsited in the loft of a hut built for that inirpose. and called "bone 

 louse." Each town has one of these. After remaining here one year, or there- 

 ibouts, if he lie a man of any note, they take the chest down, and in an assembly 

 if relations ;ind fi'lcnds tliry \\ee]) once more over him, refresh the color of the 

 lead, ]iaiiit the box, and Ibeii dejiosit bim to lasting obli\ion. 



An enemy and one who commits suicide is buried under the earth, as one to 

 je directly forgotten and unworthy of the above ceremonial obsetjuies and 

 nourning. 



The late Andrew E. Donglass found what was possibly inten- 

 ionally painted l)()nes near St. Aiignstine, Fla." 



In certain parts of California tht' custom of bone ])ainting seems 

 o have been conunon. 



Dr. H. F. ten Kate discovered several jiainted skeletons in Lower 

 ^yalifornia (a cave on Espiritu Santo Island) and M. Diguet found 

 )thers in the valley of Las Calaveritas. All the specimens from 

 his part of the country were })ainted red. Those discovered by 

 :en Kate were colored with ocher. while Diguet's s])ecimens were 

 lecorated with a paint ol)tained from volcanic ashes. M. Diguet 

 (p. 48) thought the localization of the l)urials in which j^ainted 

 )ones are found Avas restricted to '' the islands of P^spiritii Santo 

 md Cerralbo and a number of localities on the peninsula reaching 

 n a straight line from the (lulf of California to the Pacitic Ocean.'" 

 rhe collections in the National Museum- include one male a(hdt 

 Ireleton (No. 14Si>lP>. collected by E. Palmei-), from the Espiritu 

 Santo Island, Lower Califoi-nia, i)arts of which, especially the 

 Femora, show" what appears to be intentional red painting. It is 

 i)robable that from i)arts of this skeleton the paint, which looks 

 iike ocher, has been washed oil'. There is another male adult skele- 

 ton (No. 61398, collected by L. Belding). and a separate lower jaw, 



"Sanchez Mound, situated about S miles north of St. Augustine. Over 20 

 L)odies found. "Each cluster of bones was surmounted by the skull, and the 

 whole mass encrusted with red paint, which discolored the sand an inch around 

 them." (Proceedings Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1S82, XXXI, p. HST.) 



