244 



USUAL POSITION OF THE BODY IN INDIAN SEPULTURE. 



As an additional evidence of the unity of race and species in the American 

 nations, I shall now adduce the singular fact, that from Patagonia to Canada, and 

 from ocean to ocean, and equally in the civilised and uncivilised tribes, a peculiar 

 mode of placing the body in sepulture has been practised from immemorial time. 

 This peculiarity consists in the sitting posture^ and w^ill be best understood by 

 reference to the annexed draw^ing. 



PLATE LXIX. 



NATURAL MUMMY OF A MUYSCA INDIAN OF NEW GRENADA. 



It vs^ill be observed in this instance that the body is in the sitting posture, 

 the legs being flexed against the abdomen, and the feet turned inwards. The 

 arms are also flexed so as to touch the chest, the chin being supported on the 

 palms of the hands, and the fingers received into the hollow beneath the cheek 

 bones. This interesting relic was brought from New Grenada, in South America, 

 by the late Charles Biddle, Esq., who presented it to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of this city, where it is now preserved. The body is not embalmed, but 

 only desiccated ; yet the muscles are so well preserved as to render it probable 

 that some antiseptic fluid may have been applied to them. 



Let us now trace this singular custom from south to north. The Moluches 

 and Pampas of Patagonia bury their dead in large square pits. " They are placed 

 in a row, sitting, with all the weapons and other things which belonged to the 

 dead."— Falker's Patagonia, quoted in Jlppendix to M>/ma.— Dobrizhoffer also 

 observes that the equestrian tribes of that country "compose the corpse in such 

 manner that the knees touch the face." — Hist. Mipones, I, p. 132. 



The Indians of Chili had the same custom, but they exposed their dead on a 

 stage above ground.— Forster, Obs. During a Voy. Round the World, p. 564. 



The Coroados of Brazil place the body in a sitting posture in a large pot, 

 which is buried in the ground amidst cries and lamentation.— Spix and Martius, 

 Trav. in Brazil, II, p. 250, 



