166 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
in sparsely-wooded localities, preferred the other. If we consider that 
the Indians were desirous of preserving their dead as long as possible, 
the fact of their dead being placed in trees and scaffolds would lead to 
the supposition that those living on the plains were well aware of the 
desiccating property of the dry air of that arid region. This desiccation 
would pass for a kind of mummification. 
The particular part of the mourning ceremonies, which consisted in 
loud cries and lamentations, may have had in early periods of time a 
greater significance than that of a mere expression of grief or woe, and 
on this point Bruhier* seems quite positive, his interpretation being 
that such cries were intended to prevent premature burial. He gives 
some interesting examples, which may be admitted here: 
The Caribs lament loudly, their wailings being interspersed with comical remarks 
and questions to the dead as to why he preferred to leave this world, having every- 
thing to make life comfortable. They place the corpse on a little seat ina ditch or 
grave four or five feet deep, and for ten days they bring food, requesting the corpse to 
eat. Finally, being convinced that the dead will neither eat nor return to life, they 
throw the food on the head of the corpse and fill up the grave. 
When one died among the Romans, the nearest relatives embraced the 
body, closed the eyes and mouth, and when one was about to die re- 
ceived the last words and sighs, and then loudly called the name of the 
dead, finally bidding an eternal adieu. This ceremony of calling the 
deceased by name was known as the conclamation, and was a custom 
anterior even to the foundation of Rome. One dying away from home 
was immediately removed thither, in order that this might be performed 
with greater propriety. In Picardy, as late as 1743, the relatives threw 
themselves on the corpse and with loud cries called it by name, and up to 
1855 the Moravians of Pennsylvania, at the death of one of their num- 
ber, performed mournful musical airs on brass instruments from the 
village church steeple and again at the grave.t This custom, however, 
was probably a remnant of the ancient funeral observances, and not to 
prevent premature burial, or, perhaps, was intended to scare away bad 
spirits. 
W. L. Hardistyt gives a curious example of log-burial in trees, relat- 
ing to the Loucheux of British America: 
They inclose the body in a neatly-hollowed piece of wood, and secure it to two or 
more trees, about six feet from the ground. A log about eight feet long is first split in 
two, and each of the parts carefully hollowed out to the required size. The body is 
then inclosed and the two pieces well lashed together, preparatory to being finally 
secured, as before stated, to the trees. 
The American Indians are by no means the only savages employing 
scaffolds as places of deposit for the dead, for Wood§ gives a number of 
examples of this mode of burial. 
+The writer is informed by Mr. John Henry Boner that this custom still prevails not 
only in Pennsylvania, but at the Moravian settlement of Salem, N. C. 
{Rep. Smithsonian Inst., 1866, p. 319. 
§ Uncivilized Races of the World, 1874, v. ii, p. 774, et seq. 
