164 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



who now rule and sustain them only so far as they are 

 subservient to the objects of the fur trade? 



Before the dispersion of the Hurons, about the year 

 1650, the customs observed by that people relative to the 

 dead were as follows. Under the impression that the 

 spirit, notwithstanding its separation from the body, did 

 not immediately take its departure, the women were ac- 

 customed to frequent the grave of the deceased with tears, 



Indian Graves covered with Split Sticks. 



moans, and other outward signs of grief. The corpse was 

 placed in a burying-ground called by the Hurons Oi-go- 

 sa-ye. If the death had been natural, each corpse was 

 encased separately in birch bark and elevated on four 

 poles. They remained there until the celebration of the 

 " Feast of the Dead," which took place every eight or ten 

 years. At this period the inhabitants of a village taking 

 down each bier in their Oi-go-sa-ye, carefully removed the 

 dried flesh from the bones and wrapped the skeleton in 

 furs and skins. The bones of the dead having been thus 



