TRAVELS tH 
P4 
hawk, pipe, and fuch other matters as he had the 
greateft value for in his life time. His elded 
wife, or the queen dowager, has the fecond choice 
of his poifeffions, and the remaining effects are 
divided amongft his other wives and children. 
The Chaftaws pay their laid duties and refpefh 
to -the deceafed in a very different manner. As 
foon as a perfon is dead, they erebt a fcaffold 
eighteen or twenty feet high, in a grove adjacent 
to the town, where they lay the corpfe, lightly 
covered with a mantle : here it is differed to re- 
main, v lifted and protected by the friends and 
relations, until the flefh becomes putrid, fo as 
eafily to part from the bones ; then undertakers, 
who make it their bufmefs, carefully {trip the 
flefh from the bones, wafli and cleanfe them, and 
when dry and purified by the air, having pro- 
vided a curioufl'y wrought cheft or coffin, fabri- 
cated of bones and fplints, they place all the 
bones therein ; it is then depoiited in the bone- 
lioufe, a building erebted for that purpofe in 
every town. And when this lioufe is full, a ge- 
neral folemn funeral takes place ; the near- 
eft kindred or friends of the deceafed, on a 
day appointed, repair to the bone-houfe, take up 
the refpebtive coffins, and following one another 
in order of feniority, the neareft relations and 
connexions attending their refpedhve corpfe, and. 
the multitude following after them, all as one 
family, with united voice of alternate Allelujah 
and lamentation, ilowly proceed to the place of 
general interment, where they place the coffins 
m order, forming a pyramid * ; and laftly, cover 
* Some ingenious men, whom I have converted v/Ith, have given it as- 
their opinion,- chat all thofe pyramidal artificial hills, ufually called Indian 
mounts, were railed on thefe occalions, and are generally fepulchres. How- 
ie "er I am of a different opinion. 
