246 CRANIA AMERICANA. 



custom they say that man is upright, and has his face turned towards heaven, 

 which is to be his habitation.— Le Bossu, Trav. in Louisiana, I, p. 157. 



On the discovery of the Mammoth cave, in Kentucky, a woman was found 

 in a state of complete desiccation. " She was buried in a squatting form, the knees 

 drawn up close to the breast, the arms bent, with the hands raised, and crossing 

 each other about the chin." — Jirchseolog. Amer. I, p. 359. 



I am informed by Mr. Nuttall, that such also was the custom of the Osages 

 of Missouri. — Of the Omahaws. James, Exped. I, p. 224. — Of the Mandans. 

 Lewis and Clark, Exped. I, p. 163. — Of the Potowatomies. Keating, Exped. I, 

 p. 115. — Of the Chippeways. Betram, Trav. II, p. 266 — Of the Delawares. 

 Smith, Hist, of New Jersey, p. 137. — Of the Nahants and other tribes of Lenape 

 in New England. Warren, Compar. View, Sfc, p. 134. — The present town of 

 Salem, in Massachusetts, is the site of the old village of the Naumkeags: on 

 making an excavation a few years since, many skeletons were found, "placed very 

 near each other, with the knees drawn up to the breast, and the hands laid near 

 the face, which was directed to the east." Er. Pearson's Letter to the Author. — 

 Dr. Pearson had a drawing made of the skeletons in situ. 



In respect to the Canadian Indians, Charlevoix observes : " The dead man is 

 painted, enveloped in his best robe, and with his weapons beside him, is exposed 

 at the door of his cabin in the posture which be is to preserve in the grave ; and 

 this posture is that which a child has in the bosom of its mother." — Journal dm 

 Voyage, Sfc, VI, p. 107. 



Some excavations at Goat Island, at the Falls of Niagara, have revealed the 

 same fact. — Ingram's Manual, ^c, p. 63. 



Finally, I am assured by Dr. Troost that the mounds he opened in Tennessee 

 contained skeletons in the same attitude ; and Lieutenant Mather has made a 

 similar communication to me in reference to a mound examined by him in 

 Wisconsin. 



Thus it is, that notwithstanding the diversity of language, customs and intel- 

 lectual character, we trace this usage throughout both Americas, and affording, as 

 we have already stated, collateral evidence of the affiliation of all the American 

 nations.* 



* I am aware that this practice is not exclusively American. Mr. Edwards, (Hist, of the West 

 Indies, Book I, Append.,) cites Herodotus for its prevalence among the Nassamones, a people who 

 inhabited northern Africa between Egypt and Carthage ; and Cicero records it as a usage of the 

 ancient Persians. The modern Circassians, on the death of a nobleman, "set up a high wooden bed 



