124 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



in a single grave, with or without accompanying reiics, as pots, 

 flints, pipes etc. 



The Iroquois, especially the Neuter nation, the Huron and per- 

 haps the Erie, also had ossuaries in which from ten to fifty or one 

 hundred remains were placed. Few relics are ever found in ossua- 

 ries of the earlier period. In the individual burial, where the body 

 was placed intact in the grave, the position of the remains is almost 

 invariably on one side with the knees drawn toward the face and the 

 hands placed near the face, this fixed position being that assumed by 

 a sleeping person, drawn up to keep warm (see plate 38). 



In the earlier graves there are few material objects, but as 

 the time ranged into the colonial period more durable relics are 

 found, showing the gradual growth of prosperity, and a greater 

 abundance of material property. The burial objects that have sur- 

 vived the elements, are clay pots, clay and stone pipes, flint objects, 

 as knives, triangular points, celts, bone objects, shell objects, etc. 

 These are usually found near the chest, hands or head. Among the 

 hundreds of Iroquois graves and skeletons found by the writer not 

 one has been found " sitting up " and among the thousands or more 

 of all cultures discovered, none was sitting up nor did the bones 

 " crumble upon exposure to the air/' The Iroquois had no definite 

 orientation for the grave, no special side ; the only general rule 

 being the flexed position reclining on one side. 



The predecessors of the Iroquois had also this rule though the 

 makers of the stone graves sometimes placed their dead lying 

 straight and on the back. 



Miscellaneous observations. The Iroquois did not use vessels of 

 steatite, but their carved wooden bowls of the longer type were 

 fashioned like them in the sense of having handles or lugs at 

 each end. 



Iroquois textiles have never received a careful study, for they are 

 little known, but the people wore nets, bags, belts and even shoes. 

 Their corn-husk sandals differ a little from the sandals or mocas- 

 sins found in the caves of Missouri/ Small fragments of cloth and 

 woolen bags prove that they early understood weaving and basketry. 



The Iroquois carved wood and indeed the confederate Iroquois 

 law required that the national feast bowl should represent a beaver. 

 The idea of making receptacles resembling animals with their backs 

 or heads hollowed out was common. Their wooden spoons had 

 bowls shaped like clam shells and at the top of the handle was 



