MODES OF BUUIAL. ig 



Oenches, which stand ou the east side of the quadrangular tomb, they raise and bring out the corpse 

 and, while the feast is getting ready, a person whose office it is, and properly called the bonti-picker 

 dissects it with his sharp-pointed knife. He continues till he has tiiiished the task and scraped all 

 the flesh from the bones. They then carefully place the bones in a kind of small chest, in their natural 

 order, and proceed to strike up a song of lamentation, with various wailing tunes and notes- after- 

 wards, they join as cheerfully in the funeral feast as if their kinsman was only lakin"- his usual sleep. 

 Having regaled themselves, they go along with those beloved relics of their dead, in solemn 

 procession, lamenting with doleful notes, till they arrive at the bone-house, which stands in a solitary 

 place, apart from the town; then they proceed around it, much after the manner of those who 

 performed the obsequies of the Chikkasah chieftain already described, and deposit them alongside 

 of those of his kindred, till in due time they are revived by Ishto hoollo Aba, that he may repossess 

 his favorite place. 



"These bone-houses are scaffolds raised ou durable pitch-pine forked posts, in the form of a house 

 covered on the top and open at both ends. I saw three of them in one of their towns, pretty near 

 each other; the place seemed to be unfrequented ; each house contained the bones of one tribe, 

 separately, with the hieroglyphical figures of the family' on each of the odd-shaped arks. They 

 reckon it irreligious to mix the bones of a relative with those of a stranger, and much less will they 

 thrust the body of their beloved kinsman into the tomb of an enemy. I observed a ladder fixed in 

 the ground, opposite to the middle of the broadside of each of those dormitories of the dead, which 

 was made only of a broad board. On the top was the carved image of a dove, with its wings 

 stretched out and its head inclining down, as if earnestly viewing or watching over the bones of the 

 dead. From the top of the ladder almost to the surface of the earth, there hung a chain of 

 grape-vines, twisted together, in circular links. 



"To perpetuate the memory of any remarkable warrior killed in the woods, every Indian traveller 

 as he passes that way, throws a stone on the place. We often see in the woods innumerable heaps 

 of small stones in those places, where, according to tradition, some of their distinguished people were 

 either killed or buried, till the bones could be gathered. They then continue to increase with heap, 

 as a lasting monument and honor to them, and an incentive to great actions. * * * 



" Many of these heaps are to be seen in all parts of the continent of North America. Where stones 

 could not be had, they raised hillocks or mounds of earth, wherein they carefully deposited the bones 

 of their dead, which were placed either in earthen vessels or in a simple kind of arks or chests.'" 



The burial customs of the Natchez, who are said to have inhabited, in former 

 times, the southwestern portion of tlie Mexican Empire, and wlio, on account of 

 the wars with wliich they were contintially harassed by neif,diboring Indians, 

 wandered nortlieast and finally settled on the banks of the Mississippi, resembled 

 those of the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians. The habitation of tlie great chief 

 is described as standing upon an artificial motmd, fronting a large square. The 

 temple of the sun, in which a perpetual fire was preserved, was situated at the side 

 of the cabin of the chief, fronting the east, and at the extremity of the square. 

 It was oblong in form, forty feet in length and twenty in breadth, and within it 

 were the bones of the deceased chiefs, contained in boxes and baskets. Lafitau, 

 in his work on the "Manners of the American Savages," to which we have before 

 referred, gives representations of the temple and ceremonies at the death of the 

 chiefs (vol. i, p. 167, vol. ii, p. 410), as well as descriptions of their religious customs 

 and belief. 



Father le Petit, in his account of the Natchez Indians, has given the following 

 description of the bloody and remarkable rites performed at the death of the suns, 

 or chiefs : — 



' The History of the .American Indians, etc., pp 177-185. 



