SWANTON] BURIAL CUSTOMS 229 
gation. The men also seem to have had most to do with house build- 
ing and the making of implements for war, the chase, and games, 
and practically entire charge of hunting, war, and the ball game. 
Women again had a relatively small part in ceremonies. In the busk 
described by Adair only four old women had parts of consequence, 
and, indeed, Adair says that in their own town houses the women 
were separated from the warriors, and were merely allowed to sit at 
each side of the entrance “as if they were only casual spectators.” *° 
BURIAL CUSTOMS 
After stating that the bones of those who had died at a distance 
from home were gathered and brought back and that in burying 
they separated them carefully from the remains of other people— 
by which he probably means not only other tribes but other clans of 
the same tribe—Adair continues to enlarge on this subject as follows: 
When any of them die at a distance, if the company be not driven and pur- 
sued by the enemy they place the corpse on a scaffold, covered with notched 
logs to secure it from being torn by wild beasts or fowl of prey; when they 
imagine the flesh is consumed and the bones are thoroughly dried they return 
to the place, bring them home, and inter them in a very solemn manner. They 
will not associate with us when we are burying any of our people who die in 
their land, and they are unwilling we should join them while they are per- 
forming this kindred duty to theirs. Upon which account, though I have lived 
among them in the raging time of the smallpox, even of the confluent sort, L 
never saw but one buried, who was a great favorite of the Hnglish, and chief- 
tain of Ooeasa as formerly described. 
The Indians use the same ceremonies to the bones of their dead as if they 
were covered with their former skin, flesh, and ligaments. It is but a few days 
since I saw some return with the bones of nine of their people who had been 
two months before killed by the enemy. They were tied in white deer skins, 
separately, and when carried by the door of one of the houses of their family 
they were laid down opposite to it till the female relations convened, with 
flowing hair, and wept over them about half an hour. Then they carried them 
home to their friendly magazines of mortality, wept over them again, and then 
buried them with the usual solemnities, putting their valuable effects and, as 
I am informed, other convenient things in along with them, to be of service to 
them in the next state. The chieftain carried 12 short sticks tied together in 
the form of a quadrangle, so that each square consisted of 3. The sticks were 
only peeled, without any paintings, but there were swans’ feathers tied to each 
corner, and they called that frame Tereekpe tobeh,* “a white circle,’ and 
placed it over the door, while the women were weeping over the bones. ... ™* 
When a warrior dies a natural death (which seldom happens) the war drums, 
musical instruments, and all other kinds of diversion, are laid aside for the 
space of three days and nights.“” . . . [And whether the deceased is a warrior 
or not] they wash and anoint the corpse, and soon bring it out of doors for 
2% Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., p. 121. 
4 Byington gives tilikpi as an ancient word meaning “shield” and distinct from the 
word circle. Tohbi is ‘‘ white.” 
ua Adair, op. cit., p. 180. 
ub Tbid., p. 18. 
