INHUMATION IN CANOES 13 



Barbara an entire skeleton which was discovered in a redwood canoe, but 

 it is thought that the individual may have been a noted fisherman, particu- 

 larly as the implements of his vocation — nets, fish-spears, &c. — were near 

 him, and this burial was only an exemplification of the well-rooted belief 

 common to all Indians, that the spirit in the next world makes use of the 

 same articles as were employed in this one. It should be added that of the 

 many hundreds of skeletons uncovered at Santa Barbara the one mentioned 

 presented the only example of the kind. 



Among the Indians of the Mosquito coast, in Central America, canoe 

 burial in the ground, according to Bancroft*, was common, and is thus 

 described : 



" The corpse is wrapped in cloth and placed in one-half of a pitpan 

 Avhich has been cut in two. Friends assemble for the funeral and drown 

 their grief in musJda, the women giving vent to their sorrow by dashing 

 themselves on the ground until covered with blood, and inflicting other tor- 

 tures, occasionally even committing suicide. As it is supposed that the evil 

 spirit seeks to obtain possession of the body, musicians are called in to lull 

 it to sleep while preparations are made for its removal. All at once four 

 naked men, who have disguised themselves with paint so as not to be recog- 

 nized and punished by Wulasha, rush out from a neighboring hut, and, seiz- 

 ing a rope attached to the canoe, drag it into the woods, followed by the 

 music and the crowd. Here the pitpan is lowered into the grave with bow, 

 arrow, spear, paddle, and other implements to serve the departed in the land 

 beyond ; then the other half of the boat is placed over the body. A rude 

 hut is constructed over the grave, serving as a receptacle for the choice 

 food, drink, and other articles placed there from time to time by relatives." 



BUEIAL IN CABINS, WIGWAMS, OE HOUSES. 



While there is a certain degree of similitude between the above-noted 

 methods and the one to be mentioned subsequently— lodge burial — they 

 differ, inasmuch as the latter are examples of surface or aerial burial, and 

 must consequently fall under another caption. The narratives which are 

 now to be given afford a clear idea of the former kind of burial. 



* Native Races of Pacific States, 1874, vol. 1, p. 744. 



