138 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



council and discussed how long the group should remain in the village 

 (JR10:291). 



After they had arrived in Ossossane and when they were about to 

 begin the ceremony, they took down the packages of bones from the 

 poles, opened them to say their last farewell and cried again. One 

 woman, the daughter of an influential chief, combed her father's hair, 

 caressed his bones one by one, and put his council sticks beside him. 

 She put bracelets of wampum and glass beads on the arms of her 

 deceased children and bathed their bones with tears (JR 10: 293). 



After the last farewell, there was a procession [probably of the 

 village] to the pit. The person who bore the bones of the above-men- 

 tioned chief walked at the head of the procession, followed by the 

 men and then the women. The pit was about 10 feet deep and 5 brasses 

 wide. Around it was a well-made scaffold, 9 to 10 brasses wide and 

 from 9 to 10 feet high. Above this, a number of poles were laid across 

 with crosspoles to which the packages of souls were hung and bound. 

 The preceding day the whole bodies had been laid under the scaffold 

 at the edge of the pit on bark or mats fastened to stakes about the 

 height of a man ; later m the feast they were put in the bottom of the 

 pit (JR 10: 293-295). 



The people arrived about 1 o'clock in the afternoon and grouped 

 themselves by families and villages. They laid their parcels on the 

 ground and, mif olding their parcels of robes and all the presents they 

 had brought, hung them on the poles that were from 5 to 600 toises ^°* in 

 length. As many as 1,200 presents remained on view for 2 hours so 

 that the strangers could see the wealth of the country. Approximately 

 2,000 people were there. About 3 o'clock, everyone put away his 

 articles and folded up his robes (JR 10: 295). 



Each chief then gave a signal and all, loaded with their packages 

 of souls, ascended to the scaffold by ladders and hung them on the cross- 

 poles. That done, all the ladders were taken away. A few chiefs 

 remained and spent the rest of the afternoon (until 7 o'clock) announc- 

 ing the presents that had been made in the name of the dead to particu- 

 lar persons. "This," they said, "is what such and such a dead man 

 gives to such and such a relative." About 5 or 6 o'clock, they lined the 

 bottom and sides of the pit with fine large new robes, each of 10 beaver 

 skins, in such a way that they extended more than a foot out of it. 

 As they were doing this, some went to the bottom of the pit and 

 brought up handf uls of sand so that they might be successful at play.®^ 

 Of the 1,200 presents that had been displayed, 48 robes were used to 



^o" A toise is 6.396 feet. The figure of 600 toises would seem to contain a typographical 

 error. 



" Compare the recorded Iroquois belief that if a person dies holding a secret, one 

 may discover it by sleeping on the ground with a handful of grave dirt beneath his head 

 and the belief that a bone from the grave of some celebrated runner will help a man 

 become a swift runner (Parker 1913 : 30 n.). 



