Mortars are referred to by numerous 
writers, including Abbott (1) in Surveys 
West of 100th Merid., vn, 1879, (2) Prim. 
Indus., 1881; Cushing in Proc. Am. 
Philos. Soc., xxxv, 153, 1896; Fowke, 
Archseol. Hist. Ohio, 1902; Hoffman in 
14th Eep. B. A. E., 1896; Holmes in Nat. 
Mus. Rep. 1902, 1903; Jones, Antiq. So. 
Inds., 1873; Lawson (1701), Hist. Car., 
repr. 1860; MacCauleyin5th Rep. B. A. E., 
1887; Meredith in Moorehead’s Prehist. 
Impls., 1900; Morgan, League of Iroquois, 
1904; Niblack in Rep. Nat. Mus. 1888, 
1890; Nordenskiold, Cliff Dwellers of 
the Mesa Verde, 1893; Powers in Cont. 
N. A. Ethnol., in, 1877; Rau in Smith- 
son. Cont., xxii, 1876; Schoolcraft, Ind. 
Tribes, i, 1851; Thruston, Antiq. of Tenn., 
1897; Yates in Moorehead’s Prehist. 
Impls., 1900. (w. h. h. ) 
Mortuary customs. Yarrow (1st Rep. 
B. A. E., 1881) classifies Indian modes 
of burial as follows: 
(1) Inhumation, (2) Embalmment, (3) 
Deposition in urns, (4) Surface burial, 
(5) Cremation, (6) Aerial sepulture, (7) 
Aquatic burial. As the second relates to 
the preparation of the body, and the 
third, fourth, sixth, and seventh refer 
chiefly to the receptacles or the place of 
deposit, the disposal of the dead by the 
Indians may be classed under the heads 
Burial and Cremation. 
The usual mode of burial among North 
American Indians has been by inhuma- 
tion, or interment in pits, graves, or holes 
in the ground, in stone cists, in mounds, 
beneath or in cabins, wigwams, houses, 
or lodges, or in caves. As illustrations it 
may be stated that the Mohawk formerly 
made a large round hole in which the 
body was placed in a squatting posture, 
after which it was covered with timber 
and earth. Some of the Carolina tribes 
first placed the corpse in a cane hurdle 
and deposited it in an outhouse for a day ; 
then it was taken out and wrapped in 
rush or cane matting, placed in a reed cof- 
fin, and deposited in a grave. Remains 
of this kind of wrapping have been found 
in some of the southern mounds, and in 
one case in a rock shelter. The bottom of 
the grave was sometimes covered with 
bark, on which the body was laid, and 
logs or slabs placed over it to prevent the 
earth from falling on the remains. An 
ancient form of burial in Tennessee, s. Illi- 
nois, at points on Delaware r., and among 
ancient pueblo dwellers in n. New Mexico, 
was in box-shape cists of rough stone slabs. ' 
Sepulchers of this kind have been found 
in mounds and cemeteries. In some in- 
stances they were placed in the same 
general direction, but in excavations made 
by the Bureau of American Ethnology it 
was found that these cists, as well as the 
uninclosed bodies in mounds, were gen- 
erally placed without regard to uniform- 
ity of direction. When uniformity did 
occur, it was generally an indication of 
STONE GRAVE, SHOWING ORDINARY CONSTRUCTION 
stone Grave, top view; Illinois, 
(thomas) 
a comparatively modern interment. The 
Creeks and the Seminole of Florida gener- 
ally buried in a circular pit about 4 ft 
deep; the corpse, 
with a blanket or 
cloth wrapped about 
it, being placed in a 
sitting posture, the 
legs bent under and 
tied together. The 
sitting position in 
ancient burials has 
often been errone- 
ously inferred from 
the bones occurring 
in a heap. It ap- 
pears to have been a 
custom in the N. W. , 
as well as in the 
E. and S.E., to re- 
move the flesh by 
previous burial or otherwise, and 
then to bundle the bones and bury 
them, sometimes in communal pits. It 
was usual in 
grave burials to 
place the body 
in a horizontal 
position on its 
back, although 
the custom of 
placing on the 
side, often with 
the knees drawn 
up, was also 
practised; burial 
face downward, 
however, was rare. In addition to those 
mentioned, modes of burials in mounds va- 
ried. Sometimes a single body and some- 
times several were 
placed in a wooden 
vault of upright 
timbers or of logs 
laid horizontally to 
form a pen. Dome- 
shaped stone vaults 
occur over a single 
sitting skeleton. 
Not infrequently the body was laid 
on the ground, slightly covered with 
earth, and over this a layer of plastic clay 
STONE GRAVE WITH OFFSET ARCH; 
IOWA. (THOMAS) 
Arched Stone Grave; Ohio, 
(thomas) 
Burial under Heap of stones; 
Hudson bay Eskimo, (turner) 
