230 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW [BTH. ANN. 44 
fear of pollution; then they place it opposite to the door, on the skins of wild 
beasts, in a sitting posture, as looking into the door of the winter house, west- 
ward, sufficiently supported with all his movable goods; after a short eulogium, 
and space of mourning, they carry him three times around the house in which 
he is to be interred, stopping half a minute each time, at the place where they 
began the circle, while the religious man of the deceased person's family, who 
goes before the hearse, says each time, Yah, short with a bass voice, and then 
invokes in a tenor key, Yo, which at the same time is likewise sung by all the 
procession, as long as one breath allows. Again, he strikes up, on a sharp 
treble key, the feeminine note, He, which in like manner, is taken up and con- 
tinued by the rest: then all of them suddenly strike off the solemn chorus and 
sacred invocation by saying in a low key, Wah. ... This is the method in 
which they performed the funeral rites of the chieftain before referred to; 
during which time, a great many of the traders were present, as our company 
was agreeable at the interment of our declared patron and friend. .. . 
When they celebrated these funeral rites of the above chieftain they laid the 
corpse in his tomb, in a sitting posture, with his face towards the east,” his 
head anointed with bear’s oil, and his face painted red, but not streaked with 
black, because that is a constant emblem of war and death; he was drest in 
his finest apparel, having his gun and pouch, and trusty hiccory bow, with a 
young panther’s skin, full of arrows, alongside of him, and every other useful 
thing he had been possessed of—that when he rises again they may serve him 
in that tract of land which pleased -him best before he went to take his long 
sleep. His tomb was firm and clean inside. They covered it with thick logs, 
so as to bear several tiers of cypress bark, and such a quantity of clay as would 
confine the putrid smell and be on a level with the rest of the floor. They often 
sleep over those tombs; which, with the loud wailing of the women at the dusk 
of the evening, and dawn of the day, on benches close by the tombs, must awake 
the memory of their relations very often; and if they were killed by an enemy, 
it helps to irritate and set on such revengeful tempers to retaliate blood for 
blood... . 
These rude Americans . . . imagine if any of us were buried in the domestic 
tombs of their kindred, without being adopted, it would be very criminal in 
them to allow it; and that our spirits would haunt the eaves of the houses at 
night and cause several misfortunes to their family... . 
To perpetuate the memory of any remarkable warriors killed in the woods, I 
must here observe that every Indian traveler as he passes that way throws a 
stone on the place, according as he likes or dislikes the occasion, or manner of 
the death of the deceased. 
In the woods we often see innumerable heaps of small stones in those places, 
where, according to tradition, some of their distinguished people were either 
killed or buried, till the bones could be gathered; there they add Pelion to 
Ossa, still increasing each heap, as a lasting monument, and honor to them, 
and an incentive to great actions. . . . 
The Indians place those heaps of stones where there are no dividings of the 
roads, nor the least trace of any road. And they then observe no kind of 
religious ceremony, but raise those heaps merely to do honor to their dead, and 
incite the living to the pursuit of virtue... .** 
To prevent pollution, when the sick person is past hope of recovery, they 
dig a grave, prepare the tomb, anoint his hair, and paint his face; and when 
“Jn later times, when the body was buried at full length on the back, the head was 
consequently toward the west. This seems to have been the custom of most of the 
Southeastern Indians in later times, 
2a Adair, op, cit., pp. 181-185. 
