142 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
CAIRN-BURIAL. 
The next mode of interment to be considered is that of cairn or roek 
burial, which has prevailed and is still common to a considerable extent 
among the tribes living in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas. 
In the summer of 1872 the writer visited one of these rock cemeteries 
in Middle Utah, which had been used for a period not exceeding fifteen 
or twenty years. It was situated at the bottom of a rock slide, upon 
the side of an almost inaccessible mountain, in a position so carefully 
chosen for concealment that it would have been almost impossible to 
find it without a guide. Several of the graves were opened, and found 
to have been constructed in the following manner: A number of bowl- 
ders had been removed from the bed of the slide until a sufficient cav- 
ity had been obtained; this was lined with skins, the corpse placed 
therein, with weapons, ornaments, &ec., and covered over with saplings 
of the mountain aspen; on the top of these the removed bowlders were 
piled, forming a huge cairn, which appeared large enough to have 
marked the last resting place of an elephant. In the immediate vicinity 
of the graves were scattered the osseous remains of a number of horses 
which had been sacrificed, no doubt, during the funeral ceremonies. In 
one of the graves, said to contain the body of a chief, in addition to a 
number of articles useful and ornamental, were found parts of the skel- 
eton of a boy, and tradition states that a captive boy was buried alive 
at this place. 
From Dr. O. G. Given, physician to the Kiowa and Comanche A gency, 
Indian Territory, the following description of burial ceremonies was re- 
ceived. According to this gentleman the Kiowas call themselves Kaw- 
a-wah, the Comanches Nerm, and the Apaches Tah-zee. 
They bury in the ground or in crevices of rocks. They do not seem to have any 
particular rule with regard to the position. Sometimes prone, sometimes supine, but 
always decumbent. They select a place where the grave is easily prepared, which 
they do with such implements as they chance to have, viz, a squaw-axe, or hoe. If 
they are traveling, the grave is often very hastily prepared and not much time is spent 
in finishing. I was present at the burial of Black Hawk, an Apache chief, some two 
years ago, and took the body in my light wagon up the side of a mountain to the 
place of burial. They found a crevice in the rocks about four feet wide and three 
feet deep. By filling in loose rocks at either end they made a very nice tomb. The 
body was then put in face downwards, short sticks were put across, resting on projec- 
tions of rock at the sides, brush was thrown on this, and flat rocks laid over the whole 
of it. 
The body of the deceased is dressed in the best clothing, togetker with all the orna- 
ments most admired by the person when living. The face is painted with any colored 
paint they may have, mostly red and yellow, as I have observed. The body is then 
wrapped in skins, blankets, or domestic, with the hands laid across the breast, and the 
legs placed upon the thighs. They put into the grave their guns, bows and arrows, 
tobacco, and if they have it a blanket, moccasins, and trinkets of various kinds. One 
