MODES OF BURIAL. 23 



and having provided a great many pieces of pitch-pine logs, about two feet and a 

 half long, they plant them on the sides of the grave, with the upper ends together, 

 fso that they resemble the roof of a house. This structure is covered with bark, 

 and the earth that came out of the grave is thrown on and beaten down very firmly. 

 By this means the dead body lies, as it were, in a vault, nothing touching it. Law- 

 son says that, when he saw this mode of burial, he was greatly pleased with it, 

 esteeming it very decent and pretty, as he had seen a great many Christians buried 

 without the tenth part of the ceremony. When the flesh has rotted and moul- 

 dered from the bone, they take up the skeleton, clean the bones, and then join 

 them together; afterwards, they wrap them in pure white dressed deer-skins, and 

 lay them amongst their grandees and kings in the Quiogozon, which is their Hoi/al 

 Tomb, or burial place of tlieir kings and war captains. This is a very large mag- 

 nificent cabin, raised at the general charge of tlie nation, and maintained in a 

 state of repair and neatness. About seven feet from the ground is a floor or loft, 

 on which lie all their princes and great men that have died for several hundred 

 years, all attired in the dress previously described. The bones of no person are 

 allowed to lie here or to be thus dressed unless the relatives give a large sum of 

 money to the rulers for their admittance. If they remove ever so far, to live in 

 a distant country, they never fail to take all these bones along with them, though 

 the tediousness of their short daily marches keeps them a long time on their 

 journey. They are taught to regard this Quiogozon with all the veneration and 

 respect that is possible for such a people, and they would rather lose all they 

 possess than have any violence or injury offered thereto. Lawson also states that 

 the tribes of Indians in Carolina differ somewhat among themselves in their 

 burials; yet they all agree in their mourning, since they appear every night at the 

 sepulchre and howl and weep in a very dismal manner, having their faces daubed 

 over with light-wood soot (wliich is the same as lamp-black) and bear's oil. The 

 women are never honored with these ceremonies after death.^ 



According to Catlin, the Mandan Indians never bury the dead, but place the 

 bodies on slight scaffolds, just above the reach of human hands and out of the way 

 of Avolves and dogs ; and they are then left to moulder and decay. Whenever a 

 person dies in one of the Mandan villages, the customary honors are immediately 

 paid to his remains. The body is dressed in its best attire, painted, oiled, feasted, 

 and supplied with bow and quiver, shield, pipe and tobacco, knife, flint and steel, 

 and provisions enough to last a few days on the journey which is to be performed; 

 a fresh buffalo skin is wrapped around the body, tightly wound from head to foot 

 with thongs of raw-hide. Then other robes are soaked in water till they are 

 quite soft and elastic, and are also bandaged tightly around the body in the same 

 manner, and tied fast with thongs, Avhich are wound with great care and exactness, 

 so as to exclude the action of the air from all parts of the corpse. There is then a 

 separate scaffold erected for it, constructed of four upright posts, and on the top 

 of these are small poles passing around from one post to another. Across these 



> Loc. cit., pp. 180-183. 



