720 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY (Bull. 137 



The burial of their dead is performed witli a great deal of ceremony, iu 

 which one nation differs in some few circumstances from another, yet not 

 so much but we may, by a general relation, pretty nearly account for them 

 all. 



When an Indian is dead the greater person he was, the more expensive is 

 his funeral. The first thing which is done, is to place the nearest relations 

 near the corpse, who mourn and weep very much, having their hair hanging 

 down their shoulders in a very forlorn manner. After the dead person has 

 lain a day and a night in one of their hurdles of canes, commonly in some out 

 house made for that purpose, those that officiate about the funeral go into 

 the town, and the first young men they meet withal, that have blankets or 

 match coats on, whom they think fit for their turn, they strip them from their 

 backs, who suffer them so to do without any resistance. In these they wrap 

 the dead bodies, and cover them with two or three mats which the Indians 

 make of rushes or cane ; and, last of all, they have a long robe of woven reeds 

 or hollow canes, which is the coffin of the Indians, and is brought round sev- 

 eral times and tied fast at both ends, which, indeed, looks very decent and 

 well. Then the corps is brouglit out of the house into the orchard of peach 

 trees, where another hurdle is made to receive it, about which comes all the 

 relations and nation that the dead person belonged to, besides several from 

 other nations in alliance with them; all which sit down on the ground upon 

 mats spread there for that purpose; where the doctor or conjurer appears; 

 and, after some time, makes a sort of o-yes [oyez], at which all are very 

 silent, then he begins to give an account who the dead person was, and how 

 stout a man be approved himself; how many enemies and captives he had 

 killed and taken; how strong, tall, and nimble he was; that he was a great 

 hunter; a lover of his country, and possessed of a great many beautiful 

 wives and children, esteemed the greatest of blessings among these savages, 

 in which they have a true notion. Thus this orator runs on, highly extoling 

 the dead man for his valor, conduct, strength, riches, and good humor; and 

 enumerating his gims, slaves, and almost everything he was possessed of when 

 living . . . [after which he turns to the assembly and adjures them to follow 

 in the footsteps of their dead friend and so be assured of the happy land of 

 the dead which he describes and escape the Indian inferno.] . . . After all this 

 harangue he diverts the people with some of their traditions [including their 

 victories in war and so forth]. . . . When this long tale is ended, by him 

 that spoke first; perhaps a second begins another long story; and so a third, 

 and fourth, if there be so many doctors present; which all tell one and the 

 same thing. At last the corps is brought away from that hurdle to the grave 

 by four young men, attended by the relations, the king, old men, and all 

 the nation. When they come to the sepulchre, which is about six feet deep 

 and eight feet long, having at each end, that is, at the head and feet, a 

 lightwood or pitch pine fork driven close down the sides of the grave firmly 

 into the ground ; these two forks are to contain a ridge pole, as you shall under- 

 stand presently, before they lay the corps into the grave, they cover the bot- 

 tom two or three times over with bark of trees, then they let down the 

 corps with two belts, that the Indians carry their burden withal, very leis- 

 urely upon the said bark; then they lay over a pole of the same wood in the 

 two forks, and having a great many pieces of pitch pine logs, about two feet 

 and a half long, they stick them in the sides of the grave down each end and 

 near the top thereof, where the other ends lie on the ridge pole, so that they are 

 declining like the roof of a house. These being very thick placed, they cover 

 them many times double with bark, then they throw the earth thereon that 



