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fully Avrapped iu skins, tied with cords of grass and bark, lying on a mat 

 in a direction east and west; the other vaults contained only bones, which, 

 iu some of them were piled. to the height of four feet ; on the tops of the 

 vaults, and on poles attached to them, hung brass kettles and frying-pans, 

 with holes in their bottoms, baskets, bowls, sea-shells, skins, pieces of cloth, 

 hair-bags of trinkets and small bones, the offerings of friendship or affection, 

 wliicli have been saved by a pious veneration from the ferocity of war or 

 the more dangerous temptations of individual g"aiu. The whole of the 

 walls, as well as the door, were decorated with strange figures cut and 

 painted on them; and besides these were several wooden images of men, 

 some of them so old and decayed as to have almost lost their shape, which 

 were all placed against the sides of the vaults. These images, as well as 

 those in the houses we have lately seen, do not appear to be at all the 

 objects of adoration in this place ; they were most probably intended as 

 resemblances of those whose decease they indicate ; and when we observe 

 them in houses, they occupy the most conspicuous part, but are treated 

 more like ornaments than objects of worship. Near the vaults which are 

 still standing, are the remains of others on the ground, completely rotted 

 and covered with moss ; and, as they are formed of the most durable pine 

 and cedar timber there is every appearance that for a very long series of 

 years this retired spot has been the depository for the Indians near this 

 place.'' Another dej)osItory of this kind, upon an island in the river a few 

 miles above, gave it the name of Sepulcher Island. The Watlala, a tribe 

 of the Upper Tsinuk, whose burial place is here described, are now 

 nearly extinct ; but a number of the sepulchers still remain In different 

 states of preservation. The position of the body, as noticed by Clarke, is 

 I believe of universal observance, the head being always placed to the 

 west. The reason assigned to me is that the road to the me-mel-tLs-illa- 

 hee, the country of the dead, is toward the west, and if they place them 

 otherwise they would be confused. East of the Cascade Mountains, the 

 tribes whose habits are equestrian, and who use canoes only for ferriage or 

 transportation purposes, bury their dead, usually heaping over them piles 

 of stones, either to mai'k the spot or to prevent the bodies from being exhumed 

 by tlie prairie-wolf Among the Yakamas we saw many of their graves 



