emo) BURIAL FEASTS—SUPERSTITIONS. 191 
for him of all her hair and rags, with which, together with his arms, his provisions, 
his ornaments, and his mystic medicine bag, he was wrapped up in the skin which 
had been his last covering when alive. He was then tied round with the bark of 
some particular trees which they use for making cords, and bonds of a very firm text- 
ure and hold (the only ones indeed which they have), and instead of being buried in 
the earth was hung tip to a large oak. The reason of this was that, as his favorite 
Manitou was the eagle, his spirit would be enabled more easily from such a situation 
to fly with him to Paradise. 
Hind* mentions an account of a burial feast by De Brebeuf which oc- 
curred among the Hurons of New York: 
The Jesuit missionary, P. de Brebeuf, who assisted at one of the ‘‘feasts of the 
dead” at the village of Ossosane, before the dispersion of the Hurons, relates that 
the ceremony took place in the presence of 2,000 Indians, who offered 1,200 presents 
at the common tomb, in testimony of their grief. The people belonging to five large 
villages deposited the bones of their dead in a gigantic shroud, composed of forty- 
eight robes, each robe being made of ten beaver skins. After being carefully wrap- 
ped in this shroud, they were placed between moss and bark. <A wall of stones was 
built around this vast ossuary to preserve it from profanation. Before covering the 
bones with earth a few grains of Indian corn were thrown by the women upon the 
sacred relics. According to the superstitious belief of the Hurons the souls of the 
dead remain near the bodies until the ‘‘feast of the dead”; after which ceremony 
they become free, and can at once depart for the land of spirits, which they believe to 
be situated in the regions of the setting sun. 
Ossuaries have not been used by savage nations alone, for the custom 
of exluming the bones of the dead after a certain period, and collecting 
them in suitable receptacles, is well known to have been practised in 
Italy, Switzerland, and France. The writer saw in the chureh-yard of 
aed 
Zug, Switzerland, in 1857, a slatted pen containing the remains of hun- 
dreds of individuals. These had been dug up from the grave-yard and 
preserved in the manner indicated. The catacombs of Naples and Paris 
afford examples of burial ossuaries. 
SUPERSTITION REGARDING BURIAL FEASTS. 
The following account is by Dr. 8S. G. Wright, acting physician to the 
Leech Lake Agency, Minnesota : 
Pagan Indians, or those who have not become Christians, still adhere to the ancient 
practice of feasting at the grave of departed friends; the object is to feast with the 
departed ; that is, they believe that while they partake of the visible material the 
departed spirit partakes at the same time of the spirit that dwells in the food. From 
ancient time it was customary to bury with the dead various articles, such especially 
as were most valued in lifetime. The idea was that there was a spirit dwelling in the 
article represented by the material article; thus the war-club contained a spiritual 
war-club, the pipe a spiritual pipe, which could be used by the departed in another 
world. These several spiritual implements were supposed, of course, to accompany 
the soul, to be used also on the way to its final abode. This habit has now ceased. 
* * * * # * 
*Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition, 1860, ii, p. 164. 
