Aboriginal Race of America. 187 



against the abdomen, the arms also bent, and the chin supported on 

 the palms of the hands. The natives of Patagonia, Brazil and 

 Guayana ; the insular and other Charibs, the Florida tribes, the great 

 chain of Lenape nations, the inhabitants of both sides of the Rocky 

 mountains, and those also of Canada and the vast North-western 

 region, all conform with occasional exceptions, to this conventional 

 rite. So also with the demi-civilized communities from the most 

 distant epochs ; for the ancient Peruvians, to whom we have already 

 so frequently referred, possessed this singular usage, as is verified by 

 their numberless remains in the sepulchres of Titicaca. They did 

 not, however, bury their dead, but placed them on the floors of their 

 tombs, seated and sowed up in sacks. The later Peruvians of the 

 Inca race followed the same custom, sometimes inhuming the body, 

 at others placing it in a tower above ground. Garcilaso de la Vega 

 informs us, that in the year 1560 he saw five embalmed bodies of the 

 royal family, all of whom were seated in the Indian manner, with 

 their hands crossed upon the breast, and their heads bent forward. 

 So also the Mexicans from the most ancient time had adopted the same 

 usage, which was equally the privilege of the king and his people. 

 The most remarkable exception to the practice in question, is that in 

 which the body is dissected before interment, the bones alone being 

 deposited in the earth. This extraordinary rite has prevailed among 

 various tribes from the southern to the northern extremity of their 

 range, in Patagonia, Brazil, Florida and Missouri, and indeed in 

 many intervening localities ; but even in these instances the bones 

 are often retained in their relative position by preserving the liga- 

 ments, and then interred in the attitude of a person seated. An 

 example among very many others is recorded by the Baron Hum- 

 boldt, in his visit to a cavern- cemetery of the Atures Indians, at the 

 sources of the Orinoco ; wherein he found hundreds of skeletons 

 preserved each in a separate basket, the bones being held together 

 by their natural connexions, and the whole disposed in the conven- 

 tional posture of which we are speaking. 



I am well aware that this practice has been noticed by some na- 

 vigators among the Polynesian islands ; the instances, however, ap- 

 pear so few as rather to form exceptions to the rule, like those of 

 the Nassamones of northern Africa : but I have sought for it in vain 



T 



