94 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
an outhouse made for the purpose, where it was suffered to remain for a day and a 
night, guarded and mourned over by the nearest relatives with disheveled hair. 'Thoso 
who are to officiate at the funeral go into the town, and from the backs of the first 
young men they meet strip such blankets and matchcoats as they deem suitable for 
their purpose. In these the dead body is wrapped and then covered with two or threo 
mats made of rushes or cane. The coffin is made of woven reeds or hollow canes tied 
fast at both ends. When everything is prepared for the interment, the corpse is car- 
ried from the house in which it has been lying into the orchard of peach-trees and is 
there deposited in another hurdle. Seated upon mats are there congregated the family 
and tribe of the deceased and invited guests. The medicine man, or conjurer, haying 
enjoined silence, then pronounces a funeral oration, during which he recounts the 
exploits of the deceased, his valor, skill, love of country, property, and influence; 
alludes to the void caused by his death, and counsels those who remain to supply his 
place by following in his footsteps; pictures the happiness he will enjoy in the land 
of spirits to which he has gone, and concludes his address by an allusion to the promi- 
nent traditions of his tribe. 
Let us here pause to remind the reader that this custom has prevailed 
throughout the civilized world up to the present day—a custom, in the 
opinion of many, ‘“‘more honored in the breach than in the observance.” 
At last [says Mr. Lawson], the Corpse is brought away from that Hurdle to the 
Grave by four young Men, attended by the Relations, the King, old Men, and all the 
Nation. When they come to the Sepulere, which is about six foot deep and cight foot 
long, having at each end (that is, at the Head and Foot) a Light-Wood or Pitch-Pinoe 
Fork driven close down the sides of the Grave firmly into the Ground (these two Forks 
are to contain a Ridge-Pole, as you shall understand presently), before they lay the 
Corps into the Grave, they cover the bottom two or three time over with the Bark of 
Trees; then they let down the Corps (with two Belts that the Indians carry their Bur- 
dens withal) very leisurely upon the said Barks; then they lay over a Pole of the same 
Wood in the two Forks, and having a great many Pieces of Pitch-Pine Logs about 
two Foot and a half long, they stick them in the sides of the Grave down each End 
and near the Top thereof, where the other Ends lie in the Ridge-Pole, so that they are 
declining like the Roof of a House. These being very thick plac’d, they cover them 
[many times double] with Bark; then they throw the Earth thereon that came out of 
the Grave and beat it down very firm. By this Means the dead Body lies in a Vault, 
nothing touching him. 
After a time the body is taken up, the bones cleaned, and deposited in 
an ossuary called the Quiogozon. 
Figure 1, after De Bry and Lafitau, represents what the early writers 
called the Quiogozon, or charnel-house, and allusions will be found to it 
in other parts of this volume. Discrepancies in these accounts impair 
greatly their value, for one author says that bones were deposited, another 
dried bodies. 
It will be seen from the following account, furnished by M. B. Kent, 
relating to the Sacs and Foxes (Oh-sah-ke-uck) of the Nehema Agency, 
Nebraska, that these Indians were careful in burying their dead to pre- 
vent the earth coming in contact with the body, and this custom has 
been followed by a number of different tribes, as will be seen by exam- 
ples given further on. 
Ancient burial.—The body was buried in a grave made about 24 feet deep, and was 
laid always with the head towards the east, the burial taking place as soon after death 
aspossible, The grave was prepared by putting bark in the bottom of it before the corpse 
