96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



Fortunately another description gives more details of the form of 

 the so-called " bone houses " and the manner in which they were 

 entered. According to Adair, the body was placed "on a liigh 

 scaffold stockaded round, at the distance of twelve yards from his 

 house opposite to the door." At the beginning of the fourth moon 

 after burial a feast was prepared, the bone picker removed all 

 adhering flesh from the bones, which were then placed in a small 

 chest and carried to the " bone-house, which stands in a solitary place, 

 apart from the town. . . . Those bone-houses are scaffolds raised 

 on durable pitchpine forked posts, in the forai of a house covered 

 a-top, but open at both ends. I saw three of them in one of their 

 towns, pretty near each other, the place seemed to be unfrequented; 

 each house contained the bones of one tribe, separately. ... I 

 observed a ladder fixed in the ground, opposite to the middle of the 

 broad side of each of those dormitories of the dead. . . . On the top 

 was the carved image of a dove, with its wings stretched out, and 

 its head inclining downward." (Adair, (1), pp. 183-184.) 



The time for holding the great ceremony for the dead is mentioned 

 in another account, written, however, during the same generation 

 as the preceding. This was prepared by a French officer, the others 

 having been the observations of Englishmen. 



"' When a Choctaw dies, his corpse is exposed upon a bier, made 

 on purpose, of cypress bark, and placed on four posts fifteen feet 

 high. When the wormes have consumed all the flesh, the whole 

 family assembles; some one dismembers the skeleton, and plucks 

 off all muscles, nerves and tendons that still remain, they bury them 

 and deposit the bones in a chest, after colouring the head with Ver- 

 million. The relations weep during this ceremony, which is fol- 

 lowed by a feast, with which those friends are treated who come to 

 pay their compliments of condolence; after that, the remains of their 

 late relation are brought to the common burying ground, and put in 

 the place where his ancestor's bones were deposited. ... In the 

 first days of November they celebrate a great feast, which they call 

 the feast of the dead, or of the souls ; all the families then go to the 

 burying-grouud, and with tears in their eyes visit the chests which 

 contain the relics of relations, and Avhen they return, they give a 

 great treat, which finishes the feast." (Bossu, (1), I, pp. 298-299.) 



One narrative remains to be quoted, a manuscript treating of 

 Louisiana soon after the coming of the French, and although the 

 name of the author is not known and it does not bear a date, it was 

 without doubt prepared by some French officer about the year 1730. 

 Referring to the burial customs of the Choctaw, he wrote : 



"As soon as he is dead his relatives erect a kind of cabin, the 

 shape of a coffin, directly opposite his door six feet from the ground 

 on six stakes, surrounded by a mud wall, and covered with bark in 

 which they enclose this body all dressed, and whicli they cover with 



