554 THE UNITV OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



fete of the dead. Breboeuf has preserved the description of one of 

 these solemnities at which he was present in 1634.^ The four nations 

 which formed the confederation of the Hurons placed their dead upon 

 an elevated scaffolding; when the day of the fete approached, the sad 

 remains were lowered to the earth and the coverings or envelopes 

 removed. Each family recognized its own, stripped off the flesh still 

 remaining, and, with caresses and embraces, showed the greatest ten- 

 derness. Then the bones were enveloped in rich furs and borne to the 

 common ossuary, often a considerable distance, and which was to be 

 reached by pathways known only to the members of the gens. 



Among the Indians of Ohiriqui, whenever a member of the family 

 was dangerously ill, they brought the sukia, the doctor, or the sorcerer, 

 whichever you would call him. If he gave no hope of recovery the 

 relatives of the dying individual carried him to the neighboring forest, 

 suspended his hammock from the trees, and abandoned him, depositing 

 near by a gourd of water and some green plantains. At the end of a 

 year, when decomposition had done its work, a member of the tribe 

 returned to the forest and gathered and cleaned the bones, which were 

 then taken to the huacas where reposed the bones of his ancestors.^ 



The burial of the bones after the removal of the flesh has, therefore, 

 been a custom widely extended during the centuries. Cremation was 

 more general than has been thought, and recent researches, if we 

 accept the opinion of M. Cartailhac, was an excellent mode of removal 

 of the flesh from the bones, and above all when the burning or crema- 

 tion was only partial." 



But if the rite rested the same in principle among different peoples, 

 the processes varied greatly. Among the Patagonians, for example, 

 the flesh was often artificially removed from the bones. The stria on 

 the bones made by flint knives was well known and is, conclusive testi- 

 mony of this. Often they were abandoned to natural decomposition, 

 which produced all that could have been done by a provisional burial 

 or by prolonged action of atmospheric influences. The Salivas, on the 

 borders of the Orinoco, had recourse to a more expeditious method.. 

 They plunged the corpse into the river, retaining it by a cord. At the 

 end of two days the flesh had entirely disappeared from the bones, 

 having been devoured by the fish. The bones were then gathered in 

 baskets and suspended from the roofs of houses. Among the Persians 

 of the sect of Zoroaster inhumation and cremation were both prohib- 

 ited; so the dead body was suspended in open air and abandoned. It 

 thus became the prey of the vultures. The Parsees rigorously practice 

 to this day the same rite, and the lugubrious Towers of Silence near 

 Bombay contain piles of bones of successive generations, from which 

 the flesh had been stripped by the birds of heaven. Father Lafitau* 



N ' Voyages de la Nouvelle France Occidentale dite Canada. 

 2 Bui. Soc. Geog., 1885, page 445. 



^ Ass. Franc, pour I'avancement des Sciences. Nancy, 1886, t. I., page 169. 

 ■• Mceurs des sauvages coiuparees aux mceurs des premiers temps. Paris, 1723. 



