57 



Never having heard before that this custom existed in North 

 America, we eagerly availed ourselves of the opportunity of seeing 

 the interesting ceremony. Crossing the stream in our flat boat, ' 

 we arrived, after a walk of a couple of miles over the river bottom 

 and adjoining desert, at the late residence of the deceased. 



A short distance from the collection of thatched huts which 

 composed the village, a shallow trench had been dug in the desert, 

 in which were laid logs of the mesquite (Prosopis, and Strombo- 

 carpus), hard and dense wood, which makes, as all western cam- 

 paigners know, a very hot fire, with little flame, or smoke. After 

 a short time the body was brought from the village, surrounded by 

 the family and otl i 



with black paint, and the females as is the custom with other sav- 

 ages made very loud exclamations of grief, mingled with what 

 might be supposed to be funeral songs. Some smaller faggots 

 were then placed on top, a few of the personal effects of the dead 



colored smoke arose, and the burning of the body, which was much 

 emaciated, proceeded rapidly. I began to be rather tired of the 

 spectacle, and was about to go away, when one of the Indians, in 

 a few words of Spanish, told me to remain, that there was yet 



An old man then advanced from the assemblage, with a long 

 pointed stick in his hand. Going near to the burning body he 

 removed tile eyes holding them successively on the point of the 



that luminary, repeating at the same time some words, which I 

 understood from our guide was a prayer for the happiness of the 

 soul of the deceased. After this more faggots were heaped on 

 the fire which was kept up for perhaps three or four hours longer. 



learned on inquiry, that after the fire was burnt out, it was the 

 custom to collect the fragments of bone which remained, and put 

 them in a terra cotta vase, which was kept under the care of the 

 family. 



The ceremony of taking out the eyes, and offering them to the 

 Sun, seems to indicate a feeble remnant of the widely diffused 

 Sun worship of former times, but when introduced, or whence de- 

 rived, I could not learn. The subject appears to me an important 



