76 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 71 



bones were either hung from the walls of the dwellings or lay upon 

 the floor, and in one " Cabin there were fully a lumdred souls hung 

 to antl fixed upon the poles, some of which smelled a little stronger 

 than musk." At last the time arrived when all were gathered about 

 the great excavation in which the remains were to be deposited : 

 '• Let me describe the arrangement of this place. It was about the 

 .size of the place Royale at Paris. There was in the middle of it a 

 great j^it, about ten feet deep and five brasses wide. All around it 

 was a scafi'old, a sort of staging very well made, nine to ten brasses 

 in width, and from nine to ten feet high; above this staging there 

 were a number of poles laid across, and well arranged, with cross- 

 poles to which these packages of souls were hung and bound. The 

 whole bodies, as they were to be put in the bottom of the pit, had 

 been the preceding day placed under the scaffold, stretched upon 

 bark or mats fastened to stakes about the height of a man, on the 

 borders of the pit. The whole Company arrived with their corpses 

 about an hour after Midday, and divided themselves into different 

 cantons, according to their families and Villages, and laid on the 

 ground their parcels of souls, almost as they do earthen pots at the 

 A^illage Fairs. They unfolded also their parcels of robes, and all the 

 presents they had brought, and hung them upon poles, which were 

 from 5 to 600 toises in extent; so there were as many as twelve him- 

 dred presents which remained thus on exhibition two full hours, to 

 give Strangers time to see the w^ealth and magnificence of the Coun- 

 try." Later in the day the pit was lined with new beaver robes, each 

 of wdiich was made of ten skins. The bottom and sides were thus 

 covered, and the robes lay a foot or more over the edge. Forty-eight 

 lobes Avere required to form the lining, and others of a like nature 

 were wrapped about the remains. The entire bodies were first placed 

 in the bottom of the pit, and the bundles of bones were deposited* 

 above. " On all sides jou could have seen them letting down half- 

 decayed bodies ; and on all sides was heard a horrible din of confused 

 voices of persons, who spoke and did not listen; ten or twelve were 

 in the pit and were arranging the bodies all around it, one after an- 

 other. They put in the very middle of the pit three large kettles, 

 which could only be of use for souls; one had a hole through it, an- 

 other had no handle, and the third was of scarcely more value." The 

 entire bodies were placed in the pit the first day, and the bundles of 

 loose bones were deposited on the morning of the second, after which 

 the beaver robes were folded over the remains which reached nearlj' 

 to the mouth of the pit. And then all was covered " with sand, poles, 

 and wooden stakes, which they threw in without order," after which 

 "some women brought to it some dishes of corn; and that day, and 

 the following days, several Cabins of the Village provided nets quite 



