LIVING SEPULCHEES. 89 



another part of the volume that, arriving at a spring one evening, the)' were 

 obliged to dig out the skeleton of an Indian from the mud at the bottom 

 before using the water. 



This peculiar mode of burial is entirely unique, so far as known, and 

 but from the well-known probity of the relator might well be questioned, 

 especially when it is remembered that in the country spoken of water is 

 quite scarce and Indians are careful not to pollute the streams or springs 

 near which they live. Conjecture seems useless to establish a reason for 

 this disposition of the dead. 



The second example is by Catlin* and relates to the Chinook : 

 u* * * This little cradle has a strap which passes over the woman's 

 forehead whilst the cradle rides on her back, and if the child dies during its 

 subjection to this rigid mode its cradle becomes its coffin, forming a little 

 canoe, in which it lies floating on the water in some sacred pool, where they 

 are often in the habit of fastening their canoes containing the dead bodies 

 of the old and young, or, which is often the case, elevated into the branches 

 of trees, where their bodies are left to decay and their bones to dry whilst 

 they are bandaged in many skins and curiously packed in their canoes, 

 with paddles to propel and ladles to bail them out, and provisions to last 

 and pipes to smoke as they are performing their 'long journey after death 

 to their contemplated hunting grounds,' which these people think is to be 

 performed in their canoes." 



LIVING SEPULCHEES. 



This is a term quaintly used by the learned M. Pierre Muret to express 

 the devouring of the dead by birds and animals or the surviving friends 

 and relatives. Exposure of the dead to animals and birds has already been 

 mentioned, but in the absence of any positive proof it is not believed that 

 the North American Indians followed the custom, although cannibalism may 

 have prevailed to a limited extent. It is true that a few accounts are given 

 by authors, but these are considered to be so apoehryphal in character that 

 for the present it is deemed prudential to omit them. That such a means of 

 disposing of the dead was not in practice is somewhat remarkable when we 



*Hist. North American Indians, 1844, ii, p. 141. 



