70 BX^REAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



lined graves were the same people who would often deposit their 

 dead in the natural caverns, many of the bodies when placed in the 

 graves would probably have been similarly wrapped in skins or 

 pieces of woven fiber, some decorated with feathers, some plain. But 

 now little is encountered in the graves in addition to crumbling, de- 

 caying bones. 



The manner in which some of the cave burials had been prepared, 

 with the outer wrappings formed of mats of cane or rushes, tends to 

 recall Lawson's account of the burial customs of the Carolina tribes 

 with whom he came in contact very early in the eighteenth century. 

 And undoubtedly there was intercourse between the occupants of the 

 villages along the eastern slopes, in the western portion of the present 

 State of North Carolina, and the people who claimed and occupied 

 the valleys across the mountains. All may have had various customs 

 in common. 



IROQUOIAN GROUPS 



Iroquoian tribes occupied the greater part of the present State of 

 New York, forming the League of the Iroquois, which often held the 

 balance of power between the French and British colonies. Towns 

 were numerous and frequently consisted of a strongly protected 

 group of bark-covered houses, including the extended communal 

 dwellings, some of which were 80 feet or more in length. The five 

 nations of the league were the Moliawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, 

 and Seneca. The Susquehanna, met by a party of Virginia colonists 

 in 1608 near the mouth of the stream which bears the tribal name, 

 the Cherokee of the southern mountain country, and the Tuscarora 

 and neighboring tribes, were members of this linguistic family. The 

 Tuscarora moved northward early in the eighteenth century and in 

 1722 became the sixth nation of the league. 



THE FIVE NATIONS 



Writing of the Iroquois or Five Nations, during the early years of 

 the eighteenth century, at a time when they dominated the greater 

 part of the present State of New York, it was said: "Their funeral 

 Rites seem to be formed upon a Notion of some Kind of Existence 

 after Death. They make a large round Hole, in which the Body can 

 be placed upright, or upon its Haunches, which after the Body is 

 placed in it, is covered wnth Timl)er, to support the Earth which they 

 lay over, and thereby keep the Body free from being pressed; they 

 then raise the Earth in a round Hill over it. They always dress the 

 Corps in all its Finery, and put W:im])um and other Things into the 

 (have with it; and the Relations suffer not Grass or any Weed to 



