DIFFERENT METHODS OF BURIAL. 455 



does not say a word on the subject, it is clear he had no 

 idea that the inhabitants of Fakaafo exhibited such an in- 

 teresting phenomenon. The fact, if established, would be 

 most important ; but it cannot be said to be satisfactorily 

 proved that there is at present, or has been within historical 

 times, any race of men entirely ignorant of fire. It is at 

 least certain that as far back as the earliest Swiss lake-villages, 

 and Danish shell-mounds, the use of fire was well known in 

 Europe. 



There is, again, scarcely any conceivable way in which the 

 dead could be disposed of, which has not been adopted in 

 some part of the world. Among many the corpse is simply 

 buried ; by others it is burned. Some of the North American 

 Indians expose their dead on scaffolds in the branches of trees. 

 Some tribes deposit them in sacred rivers, others in the sea. 

 Among the Sea Dyaks the dead chief is placed in his war 

 canoe with his favorite weapons and principal property, and 

 is thus turned adrift. Other tribes gave their dead to be 

 food for wild beasts ; and others preferred to eat them them- 

 selves. Some Brazilian tribes drink the dead.* " The Ta- 

 rianas and Tucanos, and some other tribes, about a month 

 after the funeral, disinter the corpse, which is then much 

 decomposed, and put it in a great pan or oven, over the fire, 

 till all the volatile parts are driven off with a most horrible 

 odour, leaving only a black carbonaceous mass, which is 

 pounded into a fine powder, and mixed in several large 

 conches of caxiri : this is drunk by the assembled company" 

 under the full belief that the virtues of the deceased will thus 

 be transmitted to the drinkers. The Cobeus also drink the 

 ashes of the dead in the same manner. 



Indeed, if there are two possible ways of doing a thing, we 

 may be sure that some tribes will prefer one, and some the 

 other. It seems natural to us that descent should go in the 

 * Wallace, Travels on the Amazon, p. 498. 



