MOUUNING OBSEBVANCES. 73 



observances during a period of more than six years' constant intercourse 

 with several subdivisions of the Dakota Indians. There may be much 

 which memory has failed to recall upon a brief consideration." 



Perhaps a brief review of Dr. Turner's narrative may not be deemed 

 inappropriate here. 



Supplying food to the dead is a custom which is known to be of great 

 antiquity; in some instances, as among the ancient Romans, it appears 

 to have been a sacrificial offering, for it usually accompanied cremation, 

 and was not confined to food alone, for spices, perfumes, oil, &c, were 

 thrown upon the burning pile. In addition to this, articles supposed or 

 known to have been agreeable to the deceased were also consumed. The 

 Jews did the same, and in our own time the Chinese, Caribs and many of 

 the tribes of North American Indians followed these customs. The cut- 

 ting of hair as a mourning observance is of very great antiquity, and Tegg 

 relates that among the ancients whole cities and countries were shaved {sic) 

 when a great man died. The Persians not only shaved themselves on such 

 occasions, but extended the same process to their domestic animals, and 

 Alexander, at the death of Hephsestin, not only cut off the manes of his 

 horses and mules, but took down the battlements from the city walls, that 

 even towns might seem in mourning and look bald. Scarifying and muti- 

 lating the body has prevailed from a remote period of time, having possibly 

 replaced, in the process of evolution, to a certmn extent, the more barbarous 

 practice of absolute personal sacrifice. In later days, among our Indians, 

 human sacrifices have taken place to only a limited extent, but formerly 

 many victims were immolated, for at the funerals of the chiefs of the Florida 

 and Carolina Indians all the male relatives and wives were slain, for the 

 reason, according to Gallatin, that the hereditary dignity of Chief or Great 

 Sun descended, as usual, by the female line; and he, as well as all other 

 members of his clan, whether male or female, could marry only persons of 

 an inferior clan. To this day mutilation of the person among some tribes 

 of Indians is usual. The sacrifice of the favorite horse or horses is by no 

 means peculiar to our Indians, for it was common among the Romans, and 

 possibly even among the men of the Reindeer period, for at Solutre', in 

 France, the writer saw horses' bones exhumed from the graves examined in 



