674 MOUND KXPLOKATIONS. 



From personal examination I concliule tliat some, if not most, of the 

 "folded" skeletons' found in mounds were buried after the flesh had 

 been removed, as the folding, to the extent noticed, could not have been 

 done with the flesh on ; and the positions in most cases were such as 

 could not possibly have beenassumedinconsequenceof the decay of the 

 body and the settliug of the mound. The partial calcining of the bones 

 in vaults and under layers of clay, where the evidence shows that tire 

 was applied to the outside of the vault or above the day layers, can 

 be accounted for only on the supposition that the flesh had l)eeu re- 

 moved befoi-e burial. Other proofs that this custom prevailed among 

 the mound-builders, in various sections of the country might be adduced, 

 but this is unnecessary, as it will doubtless be conceded. 



That it was the custom of a number of tribes of Indians when first 

 visited by the whites, and even down to a comparatively modern date, 

 to bui'^' the skeletons after the flesh had been removed or rotted away, 

 is well known to all students of Indian customs and habits. 



Heckwelder says, " The Xanticokes had the singular custom of remov- 

 ing the bones of their deceased from the old burial place to a place of 

 deposit in the country they now dwell in."- The account of the com- 

 munal burial among the Hurons by Breboeuf has already been noticed. 

 The same custom is alluded to by Lafitau,^ and Bartram observed it 

 among the Choctaws.'' It is also mentioned by Bossu,^ by Adair," and 

 others. For a general account of the modes of burial among the Indian 

 tribes the reader is referred to Dr. Yarrow's paper in the First Annual 

 Eeport of the Bureau of Ethnology. 



It is foreign to the present purpose to enter into a comparison of the 

 burial customs of the various aboriginal nations of the continent. 

 Moreover, the data bearing upon the subject are so numerous that a 

 volume would be reqiured for this purpose. But it is worthy of notice 

 in this connection that the custom of removing the flesh before burial 

 does not appear to have been practiced to any considerable extent, if 

 at all, by the IMexican or Central American nations, nor by the New 

 Mexican tribes or Indians farther west. 



(2) ]ii(ri(ils heueath or in dwellinj/n. — The evidence brought to light 

 by the agents of the Bureau of Ethnology of a ctistom among the motmd- 

 builders of Aikansasand ^lississippi of burying in or undertheir dwell- 

 ings has already been alluded to. That such was also the custom of 

 some of the southern Indian tribes is awell attested historical fact. Bar- 

 tram' affirms it to have been in vogue among the '' Muscogulgecs" or 

 Creeks, and Barnard Romans " says it was practiced by the Chicka- 



1 A distinction is made here between " lumdled '" and " folded. " The former refers to those which 

 have been disarticulated and placed in a compact bundle, the skull usually placed on top or at the end, 

 the latter where the knees are brought up at^Jlinst the breast, and the heels af^ainst the pelvis. 



^ Hist. Indian Nations, p. 75. * Hist. Amer. Indians, p. 183. 



3 Ma-urs des Sauvages. ' Xnavels, p. 515. 



* Travels, p. 516. " Concise Nat. Hist, of East and West Flor- 



^ Travels thron;^h Louisiana, Tol. I, p. 29S ida, p. 71. 



