MODES OF BURIAL. 245 
tom of interring costly garniture and append- 
ages with the dead amon 
Some of the modes of burial adopted by 
the American aborigines are different, I be- 
lieve, from those of any other people. Though, 
as among civilized nations, even the wildest 
tribes sometimes inter in ordinary graves, yet 
they frequently deposit their dead, in a sitting 
and even in a standing posture, in pits, caves, 
and hollow trees; and occasionally, they lay 
the corpse out upon scaffolds suspended from 
the branches of trees, or resting upon them 
where they will admit of it, so as to be out of 
reach of the wolves and other beasts. 
I was once, with a little caravan, travelling 
up the course of the Arkansas river, when, a 
thunder-storm coming up suddenly, and night 
drawing near, we turned the ons, as soon 
as we could, to the river-bank, to encamp. 
The bustle of ungearing and securing the 
teams before they should be frightened by 
the tempest, was hardly over, when we dis- 
covered a platform suspended above our 
heads, upon the branches of a cottonwood, 
which, upon examination, was found to con- 
tain an Indian corpse, from whose bones the 
putrid flesh had not yet separat 
This mode of disposing of the dead would. 
seem once to have been quite extensive; for, 
as well as upon the western prairies, it for- 
merly prevailed ne the Potawatomies o 
the north, and the Choctaws of the south, at 
least while on their expeditions. In this case, 
if practicable, they would leave a band of 
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