webb] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NORRIS BASIN H% 



statements of early observers of these customs. Particular notice 

 should be taken of the time when such observations were made. 



Bartram, 8 who traveled among the Creeks about 1790, has this 

 to say: 



The Muscogulges bury their deceased in the earth. They dig a four-square 

 deep pit under the cabin or couch which the deceased lay on, in this house, 

 lining the grave with cypress bark, where they place the corpse in a sitting 

 posture, as if it were alive ; depositing with him his gun, tomahawk, pipe, and 

 such other matters as he had the greatest value for in his life time. 



Of the Creek customs, Romans, 4 who traveled among them in about 

 1770, reports as follows: 



The dead are buried in a sitting posture, and they are furnished with a 

 musket, powder and ball, a hatchet, pipe and tobacco, a club, a bow and 

 arrows, a looking glass, some vermillion and other trinkets, in order to come 

 well provided into the land of spirits. 



Pope 5 traveled in the Creek country in 1791, and of the Creek 



burial customs he has said : 



Upon the decease of an audit of either sex, the friends and relations of 

 the decedent religiously collect whatever he or she held most dear in life, 

 and inter them close by and sometimes in their owner's grave. This pious 

 tribute to their dead includes horses, cows, hogs, and dogs, as well as things 

 inanimate. 



In 1790, Maj. C. Swan, an Army officer, visited the Creek Nation 

 and made a report of the customs of the people whom he had seen 

 in his travels. This report was quoted by Schoolcraft 6 as follows : 



When one of a family dies, the relations bury the corpse about 4 feet deep, 

 in a round hole dug directly under the cabin or rock whereon he died. The 

 corpse is placed in the hole in a sitting posture, with a blanket wrapped about 

 it, and the legs bent under it and tied together. If a warrier, he is painted, 

 and his pipe, ornaments, and warlike appendages are deposited with him. The 

 grave is then covered with canes tied to a hoop around the top of the hole, 

 and then a firm layer of clay, sufficient to support the weight of a man. The 

 relations howl loudly and mourn publicly for 4 days. If the deceased has been 

 a man of eminent character, the family immediately remove from the house 

 in which he is buried, and erect a new one, with a belief that where the 

 bones of their dead are deposited, the place is always attended by "goblins 

 and chimeras dire." 



It seems to have been the general custom, however, after burial 

 beneath the floor of a structure, to continue to use the house. Bush- 

 nell points out that while some tribes had certain distinctive burial 

 customs, yet no tribe held rigidly to one custom, but followed many 

 different methods of disposal of their dead; so that on any one site 



3 Bartram, William, 1792, pp. 513-514. 

 * Romans, Bernard, 1775, pp. 98-99. 



5 Pope, John, 1888, p. 58. 



6 Schoolcraft, H. R., 1851-57, vol. V, p. 270. 



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