SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 723 



Caddo, wailing had become part of the ritual of greeting. Probably 

 the two were connected, since Mooney was told by Kiowa Indians that 

 they greeted a friend in this manner after a long absence because his 

 coming reminded them of those who had died since his last appear- 

 ance. A somewhat similar thought was probably behind the w^ailing 

 observed by San Miguel among both the Muskhogean and the Tinm- 

 cuan Indians of Georgia and Florida. Speaking of the return home 

 of the chief of Asao (St. Simons Island) on the Georgia coast, San 

 Miguel says : 



When we [the Spaniards] knew he was approaching the bank, we all went 

 to bid him welcome : the same reception was accorded him by all of his vassals 

 who knew of his coming, and these were many: having sprung ashore and 

 spoken to us, he directed his course to the cabin, all of our people accompany- 

 ing him: moreover the Indian men and women, little and big, began with loud 

 voices as great a wailing as if they had him dead before them : thus they 

 went along following him wailing to the cabin, where he seated himself on the 

 long bed, when all the Indians, continuously weeping, knelt before him, while 

 he listened to them with much tranquillity and gravity until, from weariness, 

 he rose and went away : ceasing to weep, the Indians rose and went off drying 

 their tears : those who were not at the reception on account of absence from 

 home, and the people of distant towns, came afterward, and, many being 

 gathered together, the chief came and seated himself on a bedstead, and the 

 Indians knelt in front of him and wept until he rose and left, when thfey 

 returned to their houses : they continued to come and weep in this manner for 

 many days: they told us that his vassals had to do the same to our chiefs 

 when they came to their land: afterwards, while I was in St. Augustine, I 

 went out on the river every day to fish and heard from thence each afternoon 

 one person begin weeping in a loud voice, whereupon the whole followed at 

 once in the same tone : on asking the cause, I learned that their chief had died, 

 and that they had to weep in this manner for an entire year: so do all of 

 these people weep for their chiefs, alive or dead. (Garcia, 1902, p. 200.) 



Timberlake has the following paragraph on mortuary ceremonies 

 among the Cherokee : 



They seldom bury their dead, but throw them into the river; yet if any white 

 man will bury them, he is generally rewarded with a blanket, besides what he 

 takes from the corpse, the dead having commonly their guns, tomahawkes, powder, 

 lead, silver ware, wampum, and a little tobacco, buried with them ; and as the 

 persons who bring the corpse to the place of burial, immediately leave it, he is at 

 liberty to dispose of all as he pleases, but must take care never to be found out, 

 as nothing belonging to the dead is to be kept, but everything at his decease 

 destroyed, except those articles, which are destined to accompany him to the 

 other world. It is reckoned, therefore, the worst of thefts. (Timberlake, Wil- 

 liams ed., 1927, pp. 90-91.) 



The abundance of burials in the Cherokee country sufficiently refutes 

 the idea that there was any such extensive water burial as Timberlake 

 claims. Perhaps he got the idea from the widely spread river ceremo- 

 nials peculiar to this tribe. Adair says they sometimes covered the 

 dead with piles of stones (Adair, 1775, p. 184) . 



