BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL 33 



" On our arriA'al there, which happened in the beginning of April, 

 I did not fail to attend the funeral. The grave was made of a large 

 size, and the whole of the inside lined with birch-bark. On the bark 

 was laid the body of the child, accompanied with an axe, a pair 

 of snow-shoes, a small kettle, several pairs of common shoes, its own 

 strings of beads, and — because it was a girl — a carrying-belt and a 

 paddle. The kettle was filled with meat. 



"All this was again covered with bark; and at about two feet 

 nearer the surface, logs were laid across, and these again covered 

 with bark, so that the earth might by no means fall upon the corpse. 



" The last act before the burial, performed by the mother, crying 

 over the dead body of her child, was that of taking from it a lock of 

 hair, for a memorial. Wliile she did this, I endeavoured to console 

 her, by offering the usual arguments; that the child was happy in 

 being released from the miseries of this present life, and that she 

 should forbear to grieve, because it would be restored to her in 

 another world, happy and everlasting. She answered, that she 

 knew it, and that by the lock of hair she should discover her 

 daughter; for she would take it with her. In this she alluded to the 

 day, when some pious hand would place in her own grave, along with 

 the carrying-belt and paddle, this little relic, hallowed by maternal 

 tears." (Henry, (1), pp. 149-151.) 



The same writer, in recording certain beliefs of the people, said 

 (pp. 151-152) : 



" I have frequently inquired into the ideas and opinions of the 

 Indians, in regard to futurity, and always found that they were 

 somewhat different, in different individuals. Some suppose their 

 souls to remain in this world, although invisible to human eyes ; and 

 capable, themselves, of seeing and hearing their friends, and also of 

 assisting them, in moments of distress and danger. Others dismiss 

 from the mortal scene the unembodied spirit, and send it to a distant 

 world or country, in which it receives reward or punishment, ac- 

 cording to the life which it has led in its prior state. Those who 

 have lived virtuously are transported into a place abounding with 

 every luxury, with deer and all other animals of the woods and 

 water, and where the earth produces, in their greatest perfection, 

 all its sweetest fruits. A^Hiile, on the other hand, those who have 

 violated or neglected the duties of this life, are removed to a barren 

 soil, where they wander up and down, among rocks and morasses, 

 and are stung by gnats, as large as pigeons." 



This agrees remarkably with the later statements made by Keating, 

 as already quoted. 



The scaffold burials mentioned in the preceding quotations do not 

 appear to have been the true form so extensively used by the tribes 

 130548°— 20 3 



