120 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



lowered him into the grave without any of his relatives touching 

 him, except to hold back the earth with pieces of bark, lest it might' 

 fall upon the coffin." Relation, 1680 



Zeisberger and Frey had a similar request at Onondaga in 

 August 1753. A prominent woman had died, and the chief 

 Otschinachiata " requested us to make a coffin for the dead woman, 

 which we did." Zeisberger 



These accounts of burial are not full, little notice being taken of 

 those parts in which the use of wood does not prominently appear, 

 and they may be concluded with Clark's description of Onondaga 

 graves a little over a century ago: 



Their graves were usually dug about 3 feet deep. Barks were 

 cut and peeled, of the length of the grave, pieces were fitted for 

 the bottom, sides and ends, and then placed in the grave ; a single 

 broad piece was fitted for a covering. The corpse was then brought 

 to the grave on poles bound together for a bier. He was then low- 

 ered into his bark coffin. . . The final covering was carefully 

 placed over the whole, and the grave closed with earth. Clark, 1 : 51 



Beside the other articles placed in graves, seeds and fruits are 

 often found. Where there were no palisades branches were some- 

 times laid over them to shield them from the sun. The log coffins 



have been found. 



Weapons 



It is a natural and probable opinion that the spear and dart pre- 

 ceded the bow and arrow. First would come the weapon used in 

 the hand, then its projection, then the means of throwing it yet 

 farther. In the opinion of some the first means would be the cord 

 attached firmly to an elastic stick and loosely to the dart, held in 

 one hand and sprung by the other. When released the dart would 

 be thrown to a distance, in a way familiar to most schoolboys. This 

 is used by Indian boys in their play even now in New York. Figure 

 31 shows one of their darts, with a notch in one edge where the 

 knot of the string is placed. A stick and knotted string furnish 

 means of propulsion. The string is tied to the small end of the 

 elastic stick, the knot is placed in the notch, the dart is drawn back- 

 by its base and suddenly released. The action is that of the bow. 

 of which this may be called a half. There is no account or figure 



