62 BURIAL AND CREMATION— NEW JERSEY. 



a mournful ditty. This was the only burial of a male that I witnessed. 

 The custom of burying females is very different, their bodies being wrapped 

 or bundled up in skins and laid away in caves, with their valuables, and in 

 some cases food being placed with them in their mouths. Occasionally 

 money is left to pay for food in the spirit land." 



This account is furnished by General Charles H. Tompkins, deputy 

 quartermaster-general, United States Army, who witnessed the burial 

 above related, and is the more interesting as it seems to be the only well- 

 authenticated case on record, although E. A. Barber* has described what 

 may possibly have been a case of cremation like the one above noted : 



"A very singular case of aboriginal burial was brought to my notice 

 recently by Mr. William Klingbeil, of Philadelphia. On the New Jersey 

 bank of the Delaware River, a short distance below Gloucester City, the 

 skeleton of a man was found buried in a standing position, in a high, red, 

 sandy-clay bluff overlooking the stream. A few inches below the surface 

 the neck bones were found, and below these the remainder of the skeleton, 

 with the exception of the bones of the hands and feet. The skull being 

 wanting-, it could not be determined whether the remains were those of an 

 Indian or of a white man, but in either case the sepulture was peculiarly 

 aboriginal A careful exhumation and critical examination by Mr. Klingbeil 

 disclosed the fact that around the lower extremities of the body had been 

 placed a number of large stones, which revealed traces of fire, in conjunc- 

 tion with charred wood, and the bones of the feet had undoubtedly been 

 consumed This fact makes it appear reasonably certain that the subject 

 had been executed, probably as a prisoner of war. A pit had been dug, 

 in which he was placed erect, and a fire kindled around him. Then he had 

 been buried alive, or, at least, if he did not survive the fiery ordeal, his 

 body was imbedded in the earth, with the exception of his head, which was 

 left protruding above the surface. As no trace of the cranium could be 

 found, it seems probable that the head had either been burned or severed 

 from the body and removed, or else left a prey to ravenous birds. The 

 skeleton, which would have measured fully six feet in height, was undoubt- 

 edly that of a man." 



'American Natural., Sept., 1878, p. 620. 



