YARROW, ] AQUATIC BURIAL—GOSH-UTES. 181 
Historians inform us that Alarie was buried in a manner similar to 
that employed by the Obongo, for in 410, at Cosen¢a, a town of Calabria, 
the Goths turned aside the course of the river 
Vasento, and having made a grave in the 
midst of its bed, where its course was most 
rapid, they interred their king with a prodig- 
ious amount of wealth and riches. They then 
caused the river to resume its regular course, 
and destroyed all persons who had been con- 
cerned in preparing this romantic grave. 
A later example of water-burial is that af- 
forded by the funeral of De Soto. Dying in 
1542, his remains were inclosed in a wooden 
chest well weighted, and committed to the tur- 
bid and tumultuous waters of the Mississippi. 
After a careful search for well-authenti- 
cated instances of burial, aquatic and semi- 
aquatic, among North American Indians, but 
two have been found, which are here given. 
The first relates to the Gosh-Utes, and is by 
Capt. J. H. Simpson :* 
Skull Valley, which is a part of the Great Salt Lake 
Desert, and which we have crossed to-day, Mr. George 
W. Bean, my guide over this route last fall, says de- 
rives its name from the number of skulls which have 
been found in it, and which have arisen from the cus- 
tom of the Goshute Indians burying their dead in 
springs, which they sink with stones or keep down 
with sticks. He says he has actually seen the Indians 
bury their dead in this way near the town of Provo, 
where he resides. 
As corroborative of this statement, Cap- Fig. 30.—Mourning-Cradle. 
tain Simpson mentions in another part of the volume that, arriving at 
a spring one evening, they were obliged to dig out the skeleton of an 
Indian from the mud at the bottom before using the water. 
This peculiar mode of burial is entirely unique, so far as known, and 
but from the well-known probity of the relator might well be questioned, 
especially when it is remembered that in the country spoken of water 
is quite scarce and Indians are careful not to pollute the streams or 
springs near which they live. Conjecture seems useless to establish a 
reason for this disposition of the dead, unless we are inclined to attrib- 
ute it to the natural indolence of the savage, or a desire to poison the 
springs for white persons. 
The second example is by George Catlin,t and relates to the Chinook: 
* * * This little cradle has astrap which passes overthe woman’s forehead whilst 
the cradle rides on her back, and if the child dies during its subjection to this rigid 
* Exploration Great Salt Lake Valley, Utah, 1859, p. 48. 
tHist. North American Indians, 1844, vol. ii, p. 141. 
