476 THE SENECA NATION 



and one showed a healed wound. Perforated humeri were 

 numerous. 



There was nothing to show the identity of the persons 

 buried in the pit, the only articles found being the two shell 

 beads mentioned. The territory was at one time occupied by the 

 Neuter Nation and the Wenroes, people of Iroquoian family, and 

 by the Missisaugas, of Algonquin stock. Both these people 

 had the custom of burying their dead in communal pits, with 

 ceremonials. Other pits on the Niagara Frontier, probably 

 Neuter, contained many articles, which had been thrown into 

 the pit with the bodies. The absence of articles here would seem 

 to indicate an origin other than Neuter. The village at Shelby 

 may have been a Wenro village, but it has its own cemeteries 

 which seem to have been large enough to account for its dead. 

 It is entirely probable that the Missisaugas who wandered over 

 the country thereabouts considered the high hill a suitable place 

 to bury their dead and there held a "Feast of the Dead". 



