MODES OF BURIAL. . 15 



they then lived was destitute of this material. In fact, the mode of burial employed 

 by the inhabitants of Tennessee was only practicable in a region of country 

 abounding in flat rocks. Large portions of the Southern and Western States are 

 without slate or thin flat rocks, and hence it is impossible to determine by their 

 stone graves the precise limits of the country formerly inhabited by the aborigines 

 of Tennessee. It is certain, however, that these stone graves are found over a 

 tract of country extending from tlie head waters of the Savannah Eiver nearly to 

 the shores of Lake Erie. 



The mode of burial practised among the Illinois is stated by ]\Ir. T. Rale, and 

 deserves to be mentioned. " Their custom," says Rale, " is not to bury the dead, 

 but to wrap them in skins, and to attach them by the head and feet to the tops of 

 trees."* 



According to Mr. Lewis H. Morgan, different customs have prevailed among the 

 Iroquois in relation to the mode of burial. At one period they buried the dead in 

 a sitting posture, with the face to the east. Skeletons are still found in this position, 

 in various parts of the State of New York, with a gun-barrel resting against the 

 shoulder, thus fixing the period of their sepulture subsequently to the first inter- 

 course of this people with the whites. Another and more extraordinary mode of 

 burial prevailed among them. The body of the deceased was exposed upon a bark 

 scaffolding, erected upon poles or secured upon the limbs of trees, where it was left 

 to waste to a skeleton. After this had been effected by the process of decomposition 

 in the open air, the bones were removed either to the former home of the deceased 

 or to a small bark house by its side prepared for their reception. In this manner the 

 skeletons of the whole family were preserved from generation to generation by the 

 affection of the living. After the lapse of a number of years, or in a season of 

 pubhc insecurity, or on the eve of abandoning a settlement, it was customary to 

 collect these skeletons from the whole community around, and to consign them to a 

 common resting-place. To this custom, which was not confined to the Iroquois, are, 

 doubtless, to be ascribed the barrows and bone mounds which have been found in 

 such numbers in various parts of the country. On opening these mounds the 

 skeletons are usually found arranged in horizontal layers constituting a conical 

 pyramid, those in each layer radiating from a common centre. In other cases they 

 are found placed promiscuously. There were Senecas residing at Tonawanda and 

 Cattaraugus, in 1851, who remember having seen, about sixty years before, at the 

 latter place, these bark scaffoldings on which bodies were exposed. The custom 

 still prevails among the Sioux upon the Upper Mississippi, and among some of the 

 tribes in the far west. The notions entertained by the Iroquois as to the state of 

 the soul when disembodied were vague and diversified ; but they all agree that, 

 on the journey, it required the same things as were of use while it dwelt in the 

 body. They, therefore, deposited beside the deceased his bow and arrows, tobacco 

 and pipe, and necessary food for the journey. They also painted his face and 

 dressed his body in its best apparel. A fire was built upon the grave at night to 

 enable the spirit to prepare its food." 



• See his Letters in Kip's Jesuit Missions, p. 38. ' League of the Iroquois, pp. 172-115. 



