ixni.ws or M.wnATT.w isl.wd \~ 



\\\v\v is no i-ccord of such occili rciiccs ;iiiioiiii the ("o;tsl;il Al^oiikiu; 

 li(MU'(\ tluMT sciMus no I'cason lo allributc lliis custom to lliciii since 

 other IrcxjUois traits wcmv so iiilrcciucnt . It seems moic probable that 

 such l)urials are simply tli<)S(» of ))et animals, interred as we toda}' Ikjuoi- a 

 I'aithful do^-. 



Some of thes(^ do"; burials may have l)oen saciifices made to tin; 

 I'ndcM-noiith Powers, such as horned snakes, just as is the practice of the 

 western Indians today. 



In Waessenaer's Historic Von Europe, we read of the Mahikan who 

 lived on the Upper Hudson. 



It appears that the Sickanamers bcforc-incntionocl, make a sort of sacrifice. They 

 have a hole in a hill in which they ])lace a kettle full of all sorts of articles that they 

 have, either by them, or j^rocured. When there is a great quantity collected a snake 

 conies in, then they all depart, and the ^hlnittou, that is the Devil, comes in the night 

 and takes the kettle away, according to the statement of the Koutsinacka, or Devil 

 hunter, who {)resides over the ceremony.^ 



****** 



Our Indians may well have sacrificed dogs and buried them for these 

 mythical snake monsters. 



Occasionally, the skeletons of dogs and rarely of other animals have 

 been found in graves associated with human bones. The finding of 

 arrow'-heads among the ribs of some of these, and other circumstances, 

 seem to point to a practice of killing a favorite animal on the death of its 

 owner to accompany or protect the spirit of its master on the journey 

 to the hereafter. 



From their appearance and position, man}' graves seem to indicate 

 that the dead may sometimes have been buried under the lodge, espe- 

 cially in winter, when the ground outside was frozen too hard to permit 

 grave digging. Others under the same circumstances seem to have been 

 buried in refuse pits. The remains further indicate that '^feasts of the 

 dead" were also held at the time of the interment, judging by the 

 quantity of oyster shells and animal bones in and near the graves. 

 Some graves have rows or layers of oyster shells, with the sharp cutting 

 edge upward, placed above the bodies as if to prevent wild animals 

 from disinterring and devouring the dead. 



An interesting fact, brought to light by the rock-shelter work of 

 Messrs. Schrabisch and Harrington in their explorations in New Jersey 

 and in Westchester County, New York, is that in the lowest and oldest 

 refuse layers of some of these shelters pottery does not occur. It would 



^Documentary History of New York, \'ol. Ill, p. 46. 



