THE BURIAL-PLACES OF THE HUEONS. 165 



gathered from a wide extent of country * were placed with 

 much solemnity in a large excavation richly decorated 

 with furs. Valuables of different kinds were deposited 

 with the remains, under the belief that they would be 

 required by those to whom they belonged in another 

 world or state of existence. 



When the death has been violent or unnatural, the corpse 

 was burned or buried immediately ; and should a Huron 

 have been frozen to death, the corpse would be carefully 

 dissected, and the skeleton buried, never to be exhumed. 

 The Hurons believed that the spirits of those who died 

 m war, or suffered a violent death in any other way, en- 

 joyed no communion in a future life with those who died 

 in the ordinary course of nature.f 



An ancient ossuary of the Hurons was opened near 

 Penetanguishene in 1846. Its appearance externally was 

 that of a mound about twenty-eight feet in diameter, 

 covered with large trees which had grown upon it after 

 its construction. An immense shroud of beaver skin 

 enveloped the sacred deposit. Twenty-six copper kettles, 

 hatchets, marine shells, bracelets or belts of wampum, 

 &c, were placed near to the bones. 



The Jesuit Missionary, P. de Brebeaf, who assisted at 

 one of the " Feasts of the Dead " at the village of Ossos- 

 sane before the dispersion of the Hurons, relates that the 

 ceremony took place in the presence of 2000 Indians, 

 who offered 1200 presents at the common tomb in testi- 

 mony of their grief. The people belonging to five large 

 villages deposited the bones of their dead in a gigantic 

 shroud, composed of forty-eight robes, each robe being 

 made of ten beaver skins. After being carefully wrapped 

 in this rich shroud, they were placed between moss and 



* Compare the description of ossuaries in Western Canada, Vol. I. p. 90. 

 f Relations Abregees. 



m 3 



