108 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 71 



As these mounds were erected on the site of a more ancient settle- 

 ment, it is possible the pits were graves made by the early Chickasaw 

 beneath the floors of their dwellings, and during the many years that 

 have intervened since the habitations M^ere occupied the bones have 

 disappeared, with only a fragment of a skull remaining. 



The Chakchiuma, related linguistically to the Chickasaw and Choc- 

 taw, lived on the upper Yazoo River, and lower down the stream, 

 near its junction with the Mississippi, were the villages of the Tuni- 

 can group, including the Koroa, Yazoo, and the Tunica proper. The 

 burial customs of the people then living in the valley of the Yazoo 

 were undoubtedly quite similar, although the inhabitants of the scat- 

 tered towns belonged to different stocks. And when referring to 

 "the Y'azoux and the Chacchoumas" (i. e., the Yazoo and Chak- 

 chiuma), Dumont wrote: "When their chief is dead they go into the 

 woods to bury him, just as in the case of an ordinary man, some on 

 one side, some on the other, the relatives of ,the deceased accompany- 

 ing the convoy and bearing in their hands a pine stick lighted like a 

 torch. When the body is in the trench all those taking part throw 

 their lighted torches into it in the same way, after which it is cov- 

 ered with earth. That is what the entire ceremony is confined to. 

 It is true that it continues more than six months longer for the rela- 

 tions of the dead and for his friends, who during all that time go 

 almost every night to utter howls over the grave, and on account of 

 the difference in their cries and voices form a regular charivari. 

 These ceremonies, as I have said, are common to the chiefs and people. 

 The only difference which marks the first is that at their head is 

 planted a post on which is cut with the point of a knife the figures 

 they have worn painted on their body during life." (Dumont, (1), 

 I, pp. 246-247.) 



The Tunica, although forming a distinct linguistic family from 

 the Muskhogean tribes with whom they were so closely associated, 

 and practically surrounded, were few in number, but they may, at 

 some earlier time, have been a more numerous and powerful people. 



To quote Swanton: "Although affected by Christian beliefs, the 

 mortuary ceremonies observed by the Tunica until recent times were 

 evidently directly descended from older customs. 



"The only specific reference by an early writer to the mortuary 

 customs of this tribe is by La Source, who says: 'They inter their 

 dead, and the relations come to weep with those of the house, and 

 in the evening they weep over the grave of the departed and make 

 a fire there and pass their hands over it, crying out and weeping.' 

 (Shea, (1), p. 81.) 



"Accounts of the modern ceremonies were obtained from different 

 sources l)y Doctor Gatschet and the wi-iter, and the following is 

 an attempt to weave them together : 



