84 Cincinnati Society of Natural Firstory. 
In a Mexican picture there appears the serpent talking to the. 
goddess Cihuacohuatl: near by are two naked figures of different 
color, who seem to be contending. The ‘‘serpent woman” was 
considered in Mexico as the mother of twins, and these naked 
figures remind us of Cain and Abel, of Hebrew tradition. (See 
Humboldt. ) 
* ** Burials are accompanied by manifestations of grief, which 
all mankind must naturally feel on the loss of endeared friends 
and relatives. Eulogiums are sometimes pronounced on the 
deceased, faces are blackened, hair is cut off, flesh is lacerated, 
and personal decorations laid aside by the mourners. Corpses are 
buried in a sitting position. Coffins are not used. Mounds are 
often erected over the body. Some tribes burn the dead, others 
place the bodies on scaffolds. On the Pacific Coast the bodies 
are placed in canoes with their blankets and household goods, 
and raised up on scaffolds, where the wolves will not get at them. 
After a time the bones are placed in a common grave. Some dig 
pits thirty feet wide; the bottom is paved with stones. 
In Virginia and Waeetad they dried the bodies of chiefs atid 
kings,—then they were preserved in their temples. 
They buried with the corpse, dogs, bows and arrows, food and 
water, etc., for they believed that the future life was like the pres- 
ent—excepting for the mitigation of its ills and inconveniences— 
that each one would indulge the inclinations and follow the occu- 
pations which he had loved in this world, therefore would need 
those things which are serviceable or agreeable to him in this life. 
The Natchez Indians burned their dead on scaffolds. When 
their ‘‘suns’’ or kings died, many of his subjects were put to 
death, especially the wife or wives of the deceased, who always 
belonged to the plebian or paria caste. 
The custom of putting persons to death at the funerals of the great 
was common in the time of DeSoto. The historians of Louisiana 
state that the people yielded themselves to those sacrifices with 
singing and dancing, and women with children at the breast gave 
up their lives as if it were a great privilege. 
Their calendar was of the simplest kind. They divided the year 
into moons. Humboldt says the people of Nootka Sound have 
months of twenty days, fourteen of which constituted a cycle. The 
Mexicans had the same length of month, and eighteen months in a 
year. 

