38 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



but if some statements of the early French are to be accepted, cer- 

 tain tribes must have attached some superstitious belief to the act 

 of burniuir the bodies of their dead. A very interestino; description 

 was recorded by the Jesuit, Pere Sebastien Rasles, of what he wit- 

 nessed and learned of the custom amonjr the Ottawa during his stay 

 among that tribe in the winter of 1691-92. He told how certain 

 divisions of the tribe burned their dead while others interred the 

 remains. However, his account may not be trite to fact, although 

 written according to his belief. (Rasles, (1), pp. 154-159.) 



Another reference to the burning of bodies is to be found in Radis- 

 son's account of his Fourth Voyage into the great northern wilder- 

 ness. He and his companions left Quebec sometime in the early 

 part of the year 1661, and were soon joined by a party of Indians 

 who belonged to some western Algonquian tribe living in the vicin- 

 ity of Lake Superior. Shortly after coming together, while passing 

 in their canoes along a certain stream where the banks were close 

 together, they met a number of Iroquois. In the fierce encounter 

 which ensued Eadisson's friendly Indians lost two killed and seven 

 wounded. And alluding to the former he wrote : " We bourned our 

 comrades, being their custome to reduce such into ashes being slained 

 in bataill. It is an honnour to give them such a buriall." (Radis- 

 son (1), p. 183.) But unfortunately he failed to tell of the final dis- 

 position of the ashes, whether they were carried by their companions 

 to their villages on the shores of the distant lakes, and there buried, 

 or left in the country where they had been slain. To have been car- 

 ried away to their homes would have been more consistent with the 

 native customs, and would more readily explain the cremation of the 

 remains, to reduce the bulk, and thereby really make it possible to 

 transport them so great a distance inider such adverse conditions. 



Charlevoix spent several weeks during the summer of 1721 among 

 the Indians just south of Lake Michigan. These were probably 

 Miami, although he undoubtedly saw members of other tribes as 

 well. Writing at this time, and probably having the Miami in mind, 

 he said: "As soon as the sick person has fetched his last breath, 

 the whole cabbin resounds with lamentations, which continue as long 

 as the family is in a condition to furnish the expence ; for open table 

 must be kept during all that time. The carcass adorned with its 

 finest robe, the face painted, the arms of the deceased, with every 

 thing he possessed laid by his side, is exposed at the gate of the 

 cabbin, in the same posture in which he is to lie in the tomb, and 

 that is in many places, the same with that of a child in the womb. 

 * * * It ajDpears to me that they carry the corpse to the place 

 of burial without any ceremony * * * b^^^ when they are once 

 in the graAC, they take care to cover them in such manner that the 

 earth does not touch them : so that they lie as in a cell entirely cov- 



