34 ANTIQUITIES IN TENNESSEE. 



of the Omahaws ;' of the Mandans ;' of the Potowatomies ;' of the Chippeways ;' of the Delawares ;' 

 of the Nahants and other tribes of Leuape in New England.* The present town of Salem, in 

 Massachusetts, is the site of the old village of the Naumkeaga ; on making an excavation a few years 

 since, many skeletons were found, ' placed very near each other, with the knees drawn up to the 

 breast, and the hands laid near the face, which was directed to the east." Dr. Pearson had a drawing 

 of the skeletons made in situ. 



" In respect to the Canadian Indians, Charlevoix observes : ' The dead man is painted, enveloped 

 in his best robe, and, with his weapons beside him, is exposed at the door of his cabin in the posture 

 which he is to preserve in the grave ; and this posture is that which a child has iu the bosom of its 

 mother.™ 



" Some excavations at Goat Island, at the Falls of Niagara, have revealed the same fact.'" 



Dr. Morton was assured by Dr. Troost that the mounds he opened in Tennessee contained skele- 

 tons in the same attitude; and Lieutenant Mather made a similar communication to Dr. Morton in 

 reference to a mound examined by him in Wisconsin. 



From these examples Dr. Morton concludes that, notwithstanding the diversity of language, 

 customs, and intellectual character, this usage may be traced throughout both Americas, and affords 

 collateral evidence of the affiliation of all the American Nations.'" — Crania Amer., pp. 244-246. 



We have now carefully examined the modes of burial practised by the American 

 aborigines in extenso, and it is evident that the ancient race of Tennessee is dis- 

 tinguished from all others by their peculiar method of interment in rude stone 

 coffins. 



Whilst the custom of burying- the dead in the sitting posture was almost universal 

 with the various tribes and nations of North and South America, the ancient inhab- 

 itants of Tennessee and Kentucky buried most commonly in long stone graves, 

 with the body resting at length, as amongst civilized nations of the present day in 

 Europe and America. The method of inclosing the body in a box or sarcophagus 

 of wood or stone appears to have originated with the Egyptians, and was employed 

 both by the Greeks and Romans, and it is from these nations most probably that 

 the custom extended, or rather was transmitted to the modern civilized nations. 



During a recent visit to Scotland, England, Wales, and France, I examined with 

 care the various museums with especial reference to the mode of burial practised 



■ James, Exped., i, p. 224. = Lewis and Clarke, E.xped., i, p. 163. 



' Keating, Exped., i, p. 115. * Bartram, Trav., ii, p. 266. 



' Smith, Hist, of New Jersey, p. 137. ' Warren, Conipar. View, etc., p. 134. 



' Dr. Pearson's Letter to Dr. Morton. * Journal d'un Voyage, etc., vi, p. 107. 



' Ingram's Manual, etc., p. 63. 



"> This practice is not exclusively American. Mr. Edwards (Hist, of the West Indies, Book I, 

 Appendix) cites Herodotus for its prevalence among the Nassamones, a people who inhabited Northern 

 Africa between Egypt and Carthage ; and Cicero records it as a usage of the ancient Persians. The 

 modern Circassians, on the death of a nobleman, "set up a high wooden bed in the open air, upon 

 which they place the body of the deceased in a sitting attitude after the bowels have been taken out ;" 

 but the interment, which is eight days later, is in the recumbent posture. (Klaproth, Caucasian 

 Nations, p. 837.) The New Hollanders sometimes bury their dead in this attitude. (Breton, N. South 

 Wales, p. 203.) The Hottentots, says Kolbein, double up the corpse "neck and heels, much in the 

 manner of a human foetus." (Present State of Cape of Good Hope, p. 315.) The people of the 

 Tonga Islands, Pacific Ocean, inter their dead in this position (Marriner, Tonga Islands, p. 211) ; 

 and Kotzebue has also observed it at the islands of Radack and Ulea. (Voyage of Discovery, iii, 

 pp. 173, 211 ) — Crania Americana, p. 246. 



