INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND 



41 



found in graves associated with human 

 bones. The finding of arrow-heads 

 among the ribs of some of these, and 

 other circumstances, seem to point to a 

 practice of killing a favorite animal on 

 the death of its owner to accompany 

 or protect the spirit of its master on 

 the journey to the hereafter. 



From their appearance and position, 

 many graves seem to indicate that 

 the dead may sometimes have been 

 buried under the lodge, especially in 

 time of winter, when the ground out- 

 side was frozen too hard to permit 

 grave digging. Others under the same 

 circumstances seem to have been 

 buried in refuse pits. The remains 

 further indicate that "feasts of the 

 dead," were also held at the time of 

 the interment, judging by the quantity 

 of oyster shells and animal bones in 

 and near the graves. Some graves 

 have rows or layers of oyster shells, 

 with the sharp cutting edge upward, 

 placed above the bodies as if to pre- 

 vent wild animals from disinterring 

 and devouring the dead. 



An interesting fact, brought to light 

 by the rock-shelter work of Messrs. 

 Schrabisch and Harrington in their 

 explorations in New Jersey and West- 

 chester County, New York, is that 

 in the lowest and oldest refuse layers of 

 some of these shelters pottery does not 

 occur. It would be ill advised to infer 

 from this that the earliest occupants 

 were peoples of another culture from 

 the surrounding village dwellers, as the 

 other artifacts found are quite similar 

 to the implements of the latter. Many 

 reasons for this lack of pottery, such 

 as the more easy transportation of 

 vessels of bark or wood through the 

 mountains and hills, suggest them- 

 selves, though they are more or less 



nullified by the presence of pottery in 

 the upper layers. The upper layer, 

 however, may have been made during 

 the period when the natives were 

 being displaced by Europeans and 

 at the same time subjected to Iro- 

 quoian raids, when the villages 

 would naturally be abandoned from 

 time to time, for refuge among the 

 cliffs and caves of the mountain fast- 

 nesses. 



It has been suggested that the rock 

 and cave shelters are remains of an 

 older occupation by people with or 

 without the same culture as the later 

 known savages. The nature of the 

 finds does not support this view, for 

 the specimens obtained are often of as 

 good workmanship as the best to be 

 found in the villages and cemeteries 

 of the latter, while pottery, on the 

 other hand, occurs on the oldest known 

 Algonkian sites. It seems most prob- 

 able to the writer that, like the shell- 

 heaps, the rock and cave shelters form 

 but a component part, or phase, of the 

 local culture, perhaps a little special- 

 ized from usage and environment, but 

 contemporary with the villages, shell- 

 heaps, and cemeteries of the lowlands. 



Mounds and earthworks do not 

 occur in the region under consider- 

 ation, nor does it appear that most of 

 of the Indian villages here were forti- 

 fied, unless they were slightly stock- 

 aded. A number of instances of this 

 are known historically, however, and 

 a few earthworks occur just beyond 

 this area. 1 



The remains found do not bear any 

 appearance of very great geological 

 antiquity. In a few instances, rock- 

 shelters, shell-heaps, and village sites 



1 An earthwork at Croton Point on the Hudson 

 has been excavated by Mr. M. R. Harrington for 

 the American Museum. 



