BOSHNBLL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 19 



equally careful to commit the body to the earth, without neglecting 

 any of the usual ceremonies, according to the standing of the de- 

 ceased. In deadly diseases, they are faithful to sustain and take care 

 of each other. Whenever a soul has departed, the nearest relatives 

 extend the limbs and close the eyes of the dead ; after the body has 

 been watched and wept over several days and nights, they bring it 

 to the grave, wherein they do not lay it down, but place it in a sitting 

 posture upon a stone or a block of wood, as if the body were sitting 

 upon a stool ; then they place a pot, kettle, platter, spoon, with some 

 provisions and money, near the body in the grave; this they say is 

 necessary for the journey to the other world. Then they place as 

 much wood around the body as will keep the earth from it. Above the 

 grave they place a large pile of wood, stone or earth, and around and 

 above the same they place palisades resembling a small dwelling." 

 (Van der Donck, (1), pp. 201-202.) 



This account may be equally applicable to the Algonquian tribes 

 of the valley of the Hudson and the neighboring Iroquoian people 

 who lived a short distance west of that stream. Evidently there is one 

 slight error in the description, as the body was not placed in a hori- 

 zontal position but arranged in a "sitting posture." It would have 

 been useless to have extended the limbs as mentioned. Probably 

 soon after death the body was flexed and wrapped, preparatory to 

 being placed in the grave, and as will be shown later, this was like- 

 wise the custom among other tribes. It is interesting to recall how 

 often the covering over the grave was likened to a small dwelling, and 

 this tends to remind one of the customs of the ancient people of Egypt 

 who, during the.X, XI, and XII Dynasties (3600 to 3300 B. C.), 

 placed pottery models of the dwellings of the living on the graves 

 of the dead, "soul-houses" of various types and sizes, representing 

 many forms of habitations and other structures. These were pre- 

 pared as places for the soul to remain, to appease it and prevent it 

 returning to the village. Could the dwelling-like covering over the 

 graves of American aborigines have resulted from similar beliefs and 

 desires ? 



A number of burials have been encountered at different times in 

 the vicinity of Manhattan Island, on Staten Island, and near Pelham 

 and other near-by places on the shore of the sound. A few years ago 

 a Munsee cemetery was uncovered near Montague, New Jersey, where 

 both flexed and extended burials were unearthed. This burial place 

 evidently belonged to the transition period, the earlier graves being 

 of the primitive form, the later containing various objects of Euro- 

 pean make. The Munsee, just mentioned, formed one of the three 

 principal divisions of the Delaware, and it is within reason to sup- 

 pose that when some of the burials discovered in the cemetery at 



