68 SCAFFOLD BCTRIAL. 



a cut and letting out some blood. This much she could not be prevailed 

 upon to forego. * * * Their mourning and wailing, avoiding the defile- 

 ment of touching a dead body, and other customs not connected with burial 

 observances, strongly point to Jewish origin." 



Keating* thus describes burial scaffolds : 



"On these scaffolds, which are from 8 to 10 feet high, corpses were 

 deposited in a box made from part of a broken canoe. Some hair was sus- 

 pended, which we at first mistook for a scalp, but our guide informed us 

 that these were locks of hair torn from their heads by the relatives to testify 

 their grief. In the centre, between the four posts which supported the 

 scaffold, a stake was planted in the ground ; it was about six feet high, and 

 bore an imitation of human figures, five of which had a design of a petti- 

 coat, indicating them to be females ; the rest, amounting to seven, were 

 naked, and were intended for male figures ; of the latter four were head- 

 less, showing that they had been slain ; the three other male figures were 

 unmutilated, but held a staff in their hand, which, as our guide informed 

 us, designated that they were slaves. The post, which is an usual accom- 

 paniment to the scaffold that supports a warrior's remains, does not repre- 

 sent the achievements of the deceased; but those of the warriors that assem- 

 bled near his remains danced the dance of the post, and related their martial 

 exploits. A number of small bones of animals were observed in the vicinity, 

 which were probably left there after a feast celebrated in honor of the dead. 



" The boxes in which the corpses were placed are so short that a man 

 could not lie in them extended at full length, but in a country where boxes 

 and boards are scarce this is overlooked. After the corpses have remained 

 a certain time exposed, they are taken down and buried. Our guide, Ren- 

 ville, related to us that he had been a witness to an interesting, though pain- 

 ful, circumstance that occurred here. An Indian who resided on the Mis- 

 sissippi, hearing that his son had died at this spot, came up in a canoe to 

 take charge of the remains and convey them down the river to his place of 

 abode, but on his arrival he found that the corpse had already made such 

 progress toward decomposition as rendered it impossible for it to be removed. 

 He then undertook, with a few friends, to clean off the bones. All the flesh 



* Long's Exped. to Iho St. Peter's River, 1824, p. 3:'.;J. 



