98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN" ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



milioii mixed Avitli bear's oil; tlien till would be placed in baskets 

 or chests and carried and deposited in the "bone house," Every 

 town had one such structure, which evidently stood at the outskirts 

 of the village. Adair mentioned having seen " three of them in one 

 of their towns, prett}' near each other . . . each house contained the 

 bones of one tribe " — i. e., clan. And this proA-es the recognition of 

 clan distinction or rights," even after death. These " bone houses " 

 seem to have resembled the houses of the living, being roofed but 

 open at both ends. They were raised above the ground on stout posts 

 and were reached by ladders. Some were surmounted by carved 

 figures, one being that of " a dove, with its wings stretched out, and 

 its head inclined downward." In some instances in olden times the 

 remains of the chief men appear to have been placed in a separate 

 house set apart for that particular purpose. 



When the remains of many had thus accumulated in the " bone 

 houses " the friends and relatives of the dead would gather and " a 

 general solemn funeral " would take place. On the day appointed 

 the chests and baskets containing the bones would be removed from 

 the " bone houses " and the friends and relatives would carry them 

 in procession, " with united voice of alternate Allelujah and lamenta- 

 tion," to a chosen spot, where they were placed one upon another 

 in the form of a pyramid, and when thus arranged all would be cov- 

 ered by a mass of earth, so making a conical mound, many of which 

 now stand scattered over the region once occupied by this numerous 

 tribe. But now the chests and baskets in which the bones were 

 deposited have disappeared, together with all else of a perishable 

 nature, and the bones themselves are fast crumbling to dust. 



The strange Choctaw custom gradually passed, and just a century 

 ago, in January, 1820, it was said : " Their ancient mode of exjjosing 

 the dead upon scaffolds, and afterwards separating the flesh from the 

 bones, is falling into disuse, though still practiced ... by the six 

 towns of the Choctaws on the Pascagoula." (Nuttall, (1), p. 235.) 

 This refers to the Oklahannali, or " Sixtowns," the name of the most 

 important subdivision of the tribe, who occupied the region mentioned. 



Undoubtedly many mounds now standing in parts of Mississippi 

 and Alabama owe their origin to the burial custom of the Choctaw, 

 but, unfortunately, few have been examined with sufficient care to 

 reveal their true form. One, however, was of the greatest interest, 

 and the discovery of glass beads and sheet metal in contact with 

 many of the burials proved the mound to have been erected after the 

 coming of Europeans to the lower Mississippi Valley. This mound 

 stood on the bank of the Mississippi, at Oak Bend Landing, in War- 

 ren County, Mississippi. It had been greatly modified and a house 

 had been built upon it, so it had been reduced to ?> feet in height, 

 with diameters of 50 and 60 feet. When examined, 28 burials were 

 encountered, " mostly belonging to the bunched variety, but a few 



