THOMAS.] SIMILARITY IN BURIAL CUSTOMS. fi75 



saws. C. C. Jones' says that "the Indians (of Georgia) often interred 

 beneath the floor of the eabiu and tlien burned the hut of tlie deceased 

 over Lis head." Dr. Brinton says, -'The burial of the priests was like 

 that of the ehiefs, except tliat the spot chosen was in their own houses, 

 and tlie whole burned over them, resembling in this a i)ractice universal 

 among the Oaribs and reappearing among the S^atchez, Cherokees, and 

 Arkansas."^ This furnishes a complete explanation of the fact observed 

 by the Bureair explorers. 



(3) Burials in a sitting or sqiudtina posture. — It was a very common 

 practice to bury some of the dead in a sitting or squatting posture. 

 The examples of this kind are too numerous and too well known to 

 justify burdening these i)ages wnth the i^roofs. It is enough to add 

 that the descriptions in the reports of tlie assistants in tlie previous 

 part of this volume and the published accounts of other explorers show 

 that this custom prevailed to a certain extent in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illi- 

 nois, northeastern Missouri, Ohio, West Virginia, and Xorth Carolina. 

 Instances have also been observed elsewhere.^ That the same custom 

 was followed by several of the Indian tribes is attested by the follow- 

 ing authorities: La Hontaii, Bossu,^ Lawson,'' Bartram,'' Adair,' etc. 



(i) The use of fire in burial ceremonies. — Another respect in which 

 the burial customs of the mound-builders corresponded with those of 

 the Indians, was the use of fire in the funeral ceremonies. As hereto- 

 fore remarked, the inference has been very generally drawn from the 

 evidences of tire found in the mounds that the people who erected these 

 monuments offered human sacrifices to their deities. It is true that 

 charred and even almost wholly consumed human bones are often found, 

 showing that bodies or skeletons were sometimes burned, but it does 

 not necessarily follow from this fact that they were offered as sacrifices. 

 Moreover, judging from all the data in our possession, I think the weight 

 of evidence is decidedly against such conclusion. 



The presence of charred bones in these works might readily be ac- 

 counted tor on the sui)])osition that cremation was adopted by some of 

 the tribes as a means of disposing of the dead, and such is the opinion 

 of Uorman, who remarks:^ " Cremation appears to have been the usual 

 method of disposing of the dead among most of these northern tribes." 

 Tlie same view is also held by Wilson." Still, I am not disjiosed, as 

 will hereafter be seen, to accept this as the true explanation of the 

 facts alluded to, though cremation was possibly practiced to a limited 

 extent by the mound builders. 



In assuming that Indians were the mound-builders, very little, if 

 anything, can be found to support the theory of human sacrifice in tlie 



1 Antiq. Smithi-rn Indiana, p. 203. ' Hist. Carolina, p. 182. 



■ FlDiidian Pt-niusula, p. 183. Si-e also Hak- » TraveLs, p. 515. 



luyt's Voyajie.-*, vol. III. jt. ;{7. ' Hist. American ludian.s. \t. 1H2. 



^Geor;.'ia and Florida. Jones' An(ii|. South " Orijrin Prim. Super.st., p. 171. 



eru Indians, pp. 183-185. ^ Prelii.storii-. Man, ll, third ed.. 187ti, p. 211. 

 * Tr-avels tlirouirli Louisiana, vol, ii p. 251. 



