OSSUARIES. 79 



be ascribed the burrows and bone-mounds which have been found in such 

 numbers in various parts of the country. On opening these mounds the 

 skeletons are usually found arranged in horizontal layers, a conical pyra- 

 mid, those in each layer radiating from a common center. In other cases 

 they are found placed promiscuously." 



D. G. Brinton* likewise gives an account of the interment of collected 

 bones : 



" East of the Mississippi nearly every nation was accustomed at stated 

 periods — usually once in eight or ten years — to collect and clean the osseous 

 remains of those of its number who had died in the intervening time, and 

 inter them in one common sepulcher, lined with choice furs, and marked 

 with a mound of wood, stone, or earth. Such is the origin of those im- 

 mense tumuli filled with the mortal remains of nations and generations, 

 which the antiquary, with irreverent curiosity, so frequently chances upon 

 in all portions of our territory. Throughout Central America the same 

 usage obtained in various localities, as early writers and existing monu- 

 ments abundantly testify. Instead of interring the bones, were they those 

 of some distinguished chiftain, they were deposited in the temples or the 

 council-houses, usually in small chests of canes or splints. Such were the 

 charnel-houses which the historians of De Soto's expedition so often men- 

 tion, and these are the 'arks' Adair and other authors who have sought to 

 trace the descent of the Indians from the Jews have likened to that which 

 the ancient Israelites bore with them in their migrations. 



"A widow among the Tahkalis was obliged to carry the bones of her 

 deceased husband wherever she went for four years, preserving them in 

 such a casket, handsomely decorated with feathers (Rich. Arc. Exp., p. 260). 

 The Caribs of the mainland adopted the custom for all, without exception. 

 About a year after death the bones were cleaned, bleached, painted, 

 wrapped in odorous balsams, placed in a wicker basket, and kept suspended 

 from the door of their dwelling (Gumilla Hist, del Orinoco I., pp. 199, 

 202, 204). When the quantity of these heirlooms became burdensome 

 they were removed to some inaccessible cavern and stowed away with rev- 

 erential care." 



* Myths of the New World, 1868, p. 255. 



