BUSHNELL] NATIVE CEMETERIES AND FORMS OF BURIAL, 77 



full of it, which were thrown upon the pit." (Le Jeiine, (1), pp. 

 265-317.) 



Much detail not quoted at this time is to be found in this vivid 

 narrative, and many of the beliefs and superstitions of the people 

 are recorded. He told of the treatment of the body of a person acci- 

 dentally drowned : " Last year, at the beginning of November [1635] , 

 a Savage was drowned when returning from fishing; he was interred 

 on the seventeenth, without any ceremonies. On the same day snow 

 fell in such abundance that it hid the earth all the winter; and our 

 Savages did not fail to cast the blame on their not having cut up the 

 dead person as usual. Such are the sacrifices they make to render 

 Heaven favorable." (P. 1,65.) 



And regarding the Huron belief in the future state the same 

 father wrote (p. 143) : "As to what is the state of the soul after 

 death, tliey hold that it separates in such a way from the body that 

 it does not abandon it immediately. When they bear it to the grave, 

 it walks in front, and remains in the cemetery until the feast of the 

 Dead ; by night, it walks through the village and enters the Cabins, 

 where it takes its part in the feasts, and eats what is left at evening 

 in the kettle ; whence it happens that many, on this account, do not 

 willingly eat from it on the morrow; there are even some of them 

 who will not go to the feasts made for the souls, believing that they 

 would certainly die if they should even taste of the provisions pre- 

 pared for them ; others, however, are not so scrupulous, and eat their 

 fill. At the feast of the Dead, which takes place about every twelve 

 years, the souls quit the cemeteries, and in the opinion of some are 

 changed into Turtledoves, which they pursue later in the woods, with 

 bow and arrow, to broil and eat ; nevertheless the most common belief 

 is that after this ceremony . . . they go away in company, covered 

 as they are with robes and collars which have been put into the grave 

 for them, to a great Village, which is toward the setting Sun, except, 

 however, the old people and the little children who have not as strong 

 limbs as the others to make this voyage ; these remain in the country, 

 where they have their own particular Villages." 



Several very interesting details are revealed in the account of 

 this great burial M'hich occurred nearly three centuries ago. The 

 first is the reference to the entire bodies being placed in the bottom 

 of the pit. This obviously alludes to entire skeletons as distinguished 

 from the bundles of detached or dissociated bones. If this was a 

 recognized custom of the makers of the ossuaries it would be ex- 

 pected, when examining a great burial of this sort, to find the posi- 

 tions and general arrangement of the remains differing in various 

 parts of the ancient pit ; to find several strata, with a greater variety 

 of bones in one than in the other. The second point of interest men- 



