294 FOSSIL MEN. 



among whom she died, and after death was left to be 

 recovered by her tribe, was recognised by the remains 

 of European clothing which these poor savages had 

 scrupulously buried with her. If we ask the reason 

 of this variety, the climate affords a ready answer. In 

 Lower Canada at this day, the bodies of those who 

 die in winter are preserved in vaults until spring, when 

 they can be properly buried ; so among the Red 

 Indians, any one dying in winter could not be in- 

 terred in the frozen ground or buried under stones, 

 but must be placed in a bark cabin or on a stage. In 

 like manner it is quite conceivable that under different 

 circumstances the same tribe might bury their dead, 

 or dispose of them by cremation, as the Kutchin of 

 north and west America, a branch of the same stock 

 with the Bceotics, now do. 



But however different in details, all these modes of 

 burial rested on the belief in immortality, and on the 

 idea that the care of the body and the provision of 

 suitable offerings had a connection with the soul's 

 welfare in a future life, and perhaps the meanest and 

 basest thing in modern literature is the attempt made 

 by some writers on this subject to explain away these 

 beliefs as held by pre-historic men. A further illus- 

 tration of these beliefs, and also probably of some 

 dim notion of a resurrection of the body, is afforded 

 by the desire of the American Indian to be in death 

 "gathered to his fathers." A touching instance of 

 this feeling is afforded by the story of the aged Micmac 

 Sachem^ or Sagamo, Mambertou, a man of high cha- 



