182 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
mode its cradle becomes its coffin, forming a little canoe, in which it lies floating on 
the water in some sacred pool, where they are often in the habit of fastening their 
canoes containing the dead bodies of the old and young, or, which is often the case, 
elevated into the branches of trees, where their bodies are left to decay and their bones 
to dry whilst they are bandaged in many skins and curiously packed in their canoes, 
with paddles to propel and ladles to bale them out, and provisions to last and pipes 
to smoke as they are performing their ‘‘long journey after death to their contemplated 
hunting grounds,” which these people think is to be performed in their canoes. 
Figure 30, after Catlin, is a representation of a mourning-cradle. 
Figure 31 represents the sorrowing mother COmmILInESE the body of her 
dead child to the merey of the elements. 
LIVING SEPULCHERS. 
This is aterm quaintly used by the learned M. Pierre Muret to express 
the devouring of the dead by birds and animals or the surviving friends 
and relatives. Exposure of the dead to animals and birds has already 
been mentioned, but in the absence of any positive proof, it is not be- 
lieved that the North American Indians followed the custom, although 
cannibalism may have prevailed to a limited extent. Itistrue that afew 
accounts are given by authors, but these are considered apochryphal 
in character, and the one mentioned is only offered to show how credulous 
were the early writers on American natives. 
That such a means of disposing of the dead was not in practice is 
somewhat remarkable when we take intoconsideration how many analo- 
gies have been found in comparing old and new world funeral observ- 
ances, and the statements made by Bruhier, Lafitau, Muret, and others, 
who give a number of examples of this peculiar mode of burial. 
For instance, the Tartars sometimes ate their dead, and the Massa- 
geties, Padzeans, Derbices, and Effedens did the same, having previously 
strangled the aged and mixed their flesh with mutton. Horace and 
Tertulian both affirm that the Irish and ancient Britons devoured the 
dead, and Lafitau remarks that certain Indians of South America did 
the same, esteeming this mode of disposal more honorable and much to 
be preferred than to rot and be eaten by worms. 
J. G. Wood, in his work already quoted, states that the Fans of Africa 
devour their dead, but this disposition is followed only for the common 
people, the kings and chiefs being buried with much ceremony. 
The following extract is from Lafitau :* 
Dans Amérique Méridionale quelque Peuples décharnent les corps de leurs Guer- 
riers et les mangent leurs chairs, ainsi que je viens de le dire, et aprés les avoir con- 
sumées, ils conservent pendant quelque temps leurs cadavres avec respect dans leurs 
Cabanes, et il portent ces squeletes dans les combats en guise @’Etendard, pour ranimer 
leur courage par cette vie et inspirer de la terreur 4 leurs ennemis. * * * 
*Maurs des Sauvages, 1724, tome ii, p. 406. 
