ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 



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made by setting crotches and laying- poles across, attached or near 

 to one corner of the cabin of the nearest friend of the deceased. 

 There the body was left exposed till the flesh had completely fallen 

 off. After this, the skeleton was buried, placing the bones of the 

 feet first, crowning the pile with the skull. Clark, 1:51 



Morgan's testimony is quite as explicit that the same mode 

 anciently prevailed among them, but it is probably a reminiscence 

 of the time when they were one with the Hurons : 



The body of the deceased was exposed upon a bark scaffolding, 

 erected upon poles, or secured upon the limbs of trees, where it was 

 left to waste to a skeleton. After this had been effected . . . 

 the bones were removed, either to the former house of the deceased, 

 or to a small bark house by its side, prepared for their reception. 

 In this manner the skeletons of the whole family were preserved 

 from generation to generation. Morgan, 1 :i66 



He represents them as afterward gathered and buried in the 

 Huron way. This may have come from tales of Huron captives, 

 but a footnote is stronger still : " There are Senecas now residing 

 at Tonawanda and Cattaraugus, who remember having seen about 

 60 years ago, at the latter place, these bark scaffoldings on which 

 bodies were placed." 



The Senecas were affected by western customs and had seen such 

 things, but that they had seen them in New York thus recently is 

 improbable. The Jesuit Relations, early travelers, the Moravians, 

 Sullivan's soldiers, all described graves and burial, but with no 

 allusions to scaffolds here. Occasional ossuaries suggest the Huron 

 customs, but they were early and few. Separate and permanent 

 burial seems the Iroquois rule. De Vries described a secondary 

 burial among the northern Indians, resembling the Huron dead 

 feast, but gave no time or place. The Nanticokes also removed the 

 bones of their friends here after they came to New York, but this 

 is exceptional. Colden was told of the cremation of a corpse at 

 Oswego, that some western Indians might carry the bones home. 



Arent Van Curler's account of some Oneida graves in 1634 is 

 the oldest that we have of those among the Iroquois. The travelers 

 came toward the town from the east: 



Before we reached the castle, we saw three graves, just like our 

 graves in length and height; usually their graves are round. These 



