ABORIGINAL USE OE WOOD IN NEW YORK IIO, 



road of Gandastogue', where they have erected the most beautiful 

 mausoleum which is seen among these barbarians." What it was 

 like may be inferred from the following account of others, written 

 by one of Sullivan's men in the campaign of 1779. Lieutenant 

 Beatty said some of the graves at Kendaia were very curious : 



One in particular which I believe was some Chief or great man 

 & was buryed in this manner; the body was laid on the surface of 

 the earth in a Shroud or Garment, then a large Casement made very 

 neat with bords something larger than the body & about 4 foot 

 high put over the body as it lay on the earth and the outside & top 

 was painted very curiously with great many Coulours, in each end 

 of the Casement was a small hole where the friends of the Deceased 

 or any body might see the corps when they pleased, then over all 

 was built a large shed of bark so as to prevent the rain from coming 

 on the Vault. Conover, p.29 



Another officer described these as " three grand tombs, where it 

 is supposed they buried some of their chiefs, they were all painted 

 very fine, and covered with a frame and bark, on the top of the 

 whole." 



The surface burial of one of these chiefs is quite different from 

 the scaffold sepulture of the Hurons and is the only one recorded 

 in New York. A brief extract will show the Huron mode: 



Those who have the care of the funeral prepare the litter where 

 the dead is laid upon a mat and wrapped in a beaver robe, and then 

 they lift it up and bear it by four corners ; all the village following 

 in silence as far as the cemetery. There is there a tomb made of 

 bark, and set up on four posts of about eight or ten feet high. While 

 they adjust the dead there and arrange the barks, the Captain pub- 

 lishes the presents. Relation, 1636 



Of course the white man's customs affected the Indian, and in 

 none more than in burial. The protecting coffin appealed to his 

 feelings. He made one himself of bark or of split and hollowed 

 logs, but, if one still better was made for him, greatly was he pleased. 

 There is something pathetic in the great Garakontie"s request, 

 related by Father de Lamberville at Onondaga, that he " would 

 make him a coffin of 4 planks, which he immediately provided." 

 A sad task his friend had afterward: "After putting him in the 

 coffin, which I had caused to be made to the best of my ability, we 



