30 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



Three days before, on Jiil.y 27, McKenney entered m his journal : 

 " We are yet about eighteen miles from the Fond du Lac. At this 

 place. Burnt river is a place of divination, the seat of a jongJeux's 

 incantations. It is a circle, made of eight poles, twelve feet high, 

 and crossing at the top, which being covered in with mats, or bark, he 

 enters, and foretells future events !" 



The manner in which the bodies had been placed in the graves 

 of the Fond du Lac cemetery was probably similar to that fol- 

 lowed by other members of the tribe, as descril)ed l)y one well versed 

 in the customs of the jib way: "When an Ojibway dies, his body 

 is placed in a grave, generally in a sitting posture, facing the west. 

 With the body are buried all the articles needed in life for a jour- 

 ney. If a man, his gun, blanket, kettle, fire steel, flint, and moc- 

 casins; if a woman, her moccasins, axe, portage collar, blanket and 

 kettle." (Warren, (1), pp. 72-73.) And following this is an ac- 

 count of the Ojibway belief of happenings after death; how "the 

 soul is supposed to stand immediately after the death of the body, 

 on a deep beaten path, which leads westward." He first comes to 

 strawberries, Avhicli he gathers to eat on the way, and soon " reaches 

 a deep, rapid stream of water, over which lies the much dreaded 

 Ko-go-gaup-o-gun or rolling and sinking bridge." Thence, after 

 traveling four clays, and camping at night, "the soul arrives in the 

 land of spirits," where all is joy and happiness. 



A form of scaffold burial was known to the same people, but 

 never practiced to any great extent. Such a burial was seen by 

 McKenney standing on an island in St. Louis River, opposite the 

 American Fur Co.'s establishment, during the summer of 1820. He 

 Avrote at that time : " One mode of burying the dead, among the 

 Chippeways, is, to place the coffin, or box, containing their i-emains, 

 on two cross pieces, nailed, or tied with wattap to four poles. The 

 poles are about ten feet high. They plant near these posts, the wild 

 hop, or some other kind of running vine, which spreads over and 

 covers tlie coffin. I saw one of these on the island, and as I have 



described it. It was the coffin of a child about four yeai^ old 



I have a sketch of it. I asked the chief why his people disposed 

 of their dead in that way? He answered, they did not like to put 

 them out of their sight so soon by putting them under ground. Upon 

 a platform they could see the box that contained their remains, and 

 that was a comfort to them." (Op. cit., pp. 305-306.) 



The sketch mentioned was undoubtedly drawn by J. O. Lewis and 

 was used as an illustration in McKenney's narrative. This is now 

 reproduced in plate 4, «., while in h of the same plate is shown a 

 view of the buildings of the American Fur Co. as they then stood 

 at Fond du Lac, derived from the same work and drawn by the 

 same artist. Across the stream are the wigwams of the Indians, and 



