protecting covering. The bast, palm straw, and bark are all well 

 preserved but the package has not been opened. 



I examined the cavern carefully everywhere for objects of stone, 

 fireplaces, etc., but found no sign that it had ever been either a 

 dwelling or that it was a place much resorted to. Sr. Antunes 

 found on the floor of the cavern a fire brand and a long split stick 

 which he thought might have been used to collect water, but both 

 these objects may be very recent. In the spot marked 13 a sharp- 

 ened stick was found buried. I have not seen it, but Dr. Bazilio 

 thought it to be an arrow. 



The observations made in the Grata das Mumias show that the 

 cavern is a natural excavation which has served as a cemetery to 

 savage Indians. So far as the mode of burial and the preserva- 

 tion of the bodies are concerned it offers nothing very novel, but 

 as an archaeological locality carefully explored it is of much im- 

 portance. 



The Gruta das Mumias is not the only cave in Brazil in which 

 Indian interments have been found. Dr. Bazilio found a large 

 number of skeletons in a cave near the head waters of the Itape- 

 merim. A similar excavation is reported to exist near Macahe, 

 and yet another containing mummied bodies and urns in the Serra 

 dos Dois Irmaos, near the head waters of the Rio Parahyba do 

 Norte. My friend, Sr. D. S. Ferreira Penna, discovered another in 

 Brazilian Guyana, in which was found the portrait urn I described 

 and figured some time ago in the American Naturalist. Every 

 one will remember the cave of the Atures on the Orinoco visited 

 by Humboldt. 



The burial of the dead in the hammock has been described over 

 and over again by writers on the Brazilian Indians, and the same 

 custom is still in force to-day among many tribes, but I do not re- 

 member having met with a description of the mode of wrapping 

 the body in strips of bast and in palm straw. 



Urn burial was practised by many ancient Brazilian tribes, and 

 is still in use to-day in many parts of the country. 



Two Tupi names are applied to the burial urn in Brazil, yga$aba 

 and camut't or camutim. The former simply means a vessel to 

 hold water, the latter a pot of any kind. It is a great mistake to 

 suppose that either name belongs exclusively to the burial vase. 



Ordinarily the vessel is not made on purpose for the body, but 

 one of the larger earthen pots for water, or for brewing cauim is 



