yarrow.] SURFACE BURIAL. 139 
ciently large to contain the corpse; it was then lashed together with 
withes and permitted to remain where it was originally placed. In 
some cases a pen was built over and around it. This statement is cor- 
roborated by R. S. Robertson, of Fort Wayne, Ind., who states, in a com- 
munication received in 1877, that the Miamis practiced surface burial in 
two different ways: 
* * * Ist. The surface burial in hollow logs. These have been fonnd in heavy 
forests. Sometimes a tree has been split and the two halves hollowed out to receive 
the body, when it was either closed with withes or confined to the ground with 
crossed stakes ; and sometimes a hollow tree is used by closing the ends. 
2a. Surface burial where the body was covered by a small pen of logs laid up as we 
build a cabin, but drawing in every course until they meet in a single log at the top. 
The writer has recently received from Prof. C. Engelhardt, of Copen- 
hagen, Denmark, a brochure describing the oak coffins of Borum-Aushoei. 
From an engraving in this volume it would appear that the manner 
employed by the ancient Danes of hollowing out logs for coffins has its 
analogy among the North American Indians. 
Romantically conceived, and carried out to the fullest possible extent 
in accordance with the ante mortem wishes of the dead, were the obse- 
quies of Blackbird, the great chief of the Omahas. The account is 
given by George Catlin :* 
He requested them to take his body down the river to this his favorite haunt, 
and on the pinnacle of this towering bluff to bury him on the back of his favorite 
war-horse, which was to be buried alive under him, from whence he could see, as he 
said, ‘‘the Frenchmen passing up and down the river in their boats.” He owned, 
amongst many horses, a noble white steed, that was led to the top of the grass-covered 
hill, and with great pomp and ceremony, in the presence of the whole nation and 
several of the fur-traders and the Indian agent, he was placed astride of his horse’s 
back, with his bow in his hand, and his shield and quiver slung, with his pipe and 
his medicine bag, with his supply of dried meat, and his tobacco-pouch replenished 
to last him through the journey to the beautiful hunting grounds of the shades of his 
fathers, with his flint, his steel, and his tinder to light his pipe by the way; the 
scalps he had taken from his enemies’ heads could be trophies tor nobody else, and 
were hung to the bridle of his horse. He was in full dress, and fully equipped, and 
on his head waved to the last moment his beautifnl head-dress of the war-eagles’ 
plumes. In this plight, and the last funeral honors having been performed by the 
medicine-men, every warrior of his band painted the palm and fingers of his right 
hand with vermillion, which was stamped and perfectly impressed on the milk-white 
sides of his devoted horse. This all done, turfs were brought and placed around the 
feet and legs of the horse, and gradually laid up to its sides, and at last over the back 
and head of the unsuspecting animal, and last of all over the head and even the eagle 
plumes of its valiant rider, where all together have smouldered and remained undis- 
turbed to the present day. 
igure 7, after Schoolcraft, represents an Indian burial-ground on a 
high bluff of the Missouri River. 
According to the wee J. G. Wood,t the Obongo, an African meee, 
Shianners, Gogiene, &e. , of North fveneen ition: 1344, ab ii, p. ce 
t Uncivilized Races of the World, 1870, vol. i, p. 483, 
