188 



dead. Parkman says that the practice of burying treas- 

 ures with the dead is not peculiar to the North American 

 aborigines, and calls to mind the curious fact mentioned 

 in the "London Times" of Oct. 28, 1865, in describing 

 the funeral rites of Lord Palmerston, viz. : — 



"And as the words, 'Dust to dust, ashes to ashes,' were 

 pronounced, the chief mourner, as a last precious offering 

 to the dead, threw into the grave several diamond and 

 gold rings." 



Dr. A. H. Johnson called attention to the bones upon 

 the table, and, by means of a skeleton of the Caucasian 

 race, pointed out the anatomical peculiarities of the In- 

 dian bones, illustrating the differences by comparing and 

 contrasting the similar bones in the two races. The 

 bones exhibited were preserved whole, as they lay in the 

 oravc. Thev were not in their natural combinations, but 

 were laid together in a compact bundle, with some regard 

 to symmetry, although not according to their anatomical 

 structure. 



Dr. Johnson regarded this collection of bones as a 

 reinterment of one of the tribe or family. It was a prac- 

 tice among the llurons, well known to the Jesuits, as 

 stated by Parkman, at intervals of ten or twelve years, 

 to collect together their dead and convey them to the 

 common place of sepulture, where the great Feast of the 

 Dead was celebrated with peculiar rites. From all quar- 

 ters of the Confederated tribes the mourners began their 

 march. The bodies remaining entire were borne on a 

 kind of litter, while the disjointed bones, bundled like 

 fagots, were wrapped in skins, and slung at the shoulders 

 of the relatives. Thus the procession slowly defiled along 

 the forest paths, uttering at intervals, in unison, a dreary, 

 wailing rvy, designed to imitate the voices of disembodied 



