14 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



or a log of wood laid upon the top. In the graves of one of the chief towns in 

 the province of Cutifachiqui, the Spaniards found fourteen rows of pearls (weighing 

 three hundred and ninety-two pounds), and little images of men and birds made 

 of them. These facts indicate that the mode of burial practised by the aborigines 

 of Tennessee dates back more than tliree centuries, and was employed by the Indians 

 inhabiting, at the time of the expedition of De Soto, that portion of the country 

 which is now included in the States of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. 



Lafitau, in his great work,, " Moeurs des Sauvages Am^riquains, comparees aux 

 Moeurs des Premiers Temps," quotes a lengthy and elaborate description by Pere 

 de Brebeus, of the mode of burial practised in early times by the Hurons and 

 Iroquois The bodies of the chief men were, in former times, subjected to a 

 process of embalming. The skin was removed and oiled ; the flesh was removed 

 from the bones, and the skeleton placed within the skin, which was then stuffed 

 with sand and laid upon a scaffold. The flesh was smoked, dried, and packed 

 in blankets, and placed at the feet. This mode appears to have been practised 

 only in the case of the most distinguished chiefs. The Illinois are said to have 

 buried the bodies of the women, but they wrapped the bodies of the men in skins 

 and hung them upon trees. When the Hurons and Iroquois buried bodies in the 

 ground, they dug a circular hole, which was carefully lined with bark, and the 

 body wrapped in skins was placed in the grave, with a vessel containing water or 

 food at the side, together with ornaments, pipes, and weapons of war. The mouth 

 of the grave was then covered with bark and earth. Pere de Brebeus has also 

 described at length the grand burial festival observed by the Iroquois at long 

 intervals of time, varying from eight to twelve years. The dead bodies and bones 

 of the nation or tribe were collected and deposited in a large grave, into which 

 large numbers of utensils, hatchets, pipes, etc., were thrown, and the whole covered 

 with bark and earth. Various ceremonies were performed during this grand 

 collection and burial of the deceased.^ 



Narvaez, upon first landing in Florida, found a temple in which were chests, each 

 containing a dead body covered with painted deer skins. 



Jacob le Moyne,- who accompanied Renaud de Laudouniere in his second voyage 

 to Florida, says, in his work on the Indians, that when a chief or prophet died, upon 

 the St. John's, he was placed in the ground, and a small mound of conical form was 

 erected over him. The base of this mound was surrounded with arrows stuck in 

 regular order. Some of the tribe sat and others kneeled aroimd it, and continued 

 to weep and howl for the space of three nights. Chosen women next visited the 

 mound for a long time every morning at the break of day, at noon, and at night. 



The description given by Joutel of the mode of burial practised by the Chouanons, 

 although presenting some features in common with that of the ancient inhabitants 

 of Tennessee, was most probably drawn up from that portion of the nation which 

 had settled with the Illinois. As tliis author does not mention the use of stone 

 slabs in the construction of their tombs, it is probable that the country in which 



' Mreurs des Sauvages Ameriqnains, etc., par C. P. Lafitau, tome second, pp. 386-458. 

 " As quoted by Pickett, History of Alabama, vol. i. p. 72. 



