117 
The legs of all the skeletons found by us were more or less flexed; in 
some cases loosely, in others sharply; often with the heels brought up close 
to the pelvis and the knees near the chest. Five had the legs flexed at 
right angles to the body. 
The flexing was probably not done to save digging a larger grave, as 
even among people who practised scaffold burial the corpse was flexed 
before being placed on the scaffold (See Charlevoix, VI, 108). Possibly 
the Roebuck site people held the same opinion as those mentioned by 
Fathers Jouvency 1 and Biard. 2 
The fact that all but nine of the skeletons are those of women, children, 
and adolescents suggests that the younger men or warriors were buried 
awav from the site while on the warpath, or that there is another burial 
place somewhere, perhaps for males of the warrior class, in the neighbour- 
hood of the site. There is only one skeleton of a young man of war age 
(No. 75) and his death seems to have been due to a growth on the back 
part of the head. Some of the skeletons are those of extremely aged 
individuals, including two males (Nos. 3o and 36) and two females (Nos. 
14 and 27) ; thirty-three, or about 30 per cent, of the skeletons are those 
of infants and children. 
The skulls of twenty-three skeletons were crushed or broken, probably 
all of them posthumously, some recently by the plough, a few owing to 
compressure by earth ; one of the latter was abnormally elongated. 
Some of the skeletons have one or more bones missing (Nos. 1, 8, 9, 18, 
23 63, 65, 74, and 75). In one case only the skull remained (No. 63), and 
in two others (Nos. 23 and 75) only the skulls and a few other bones. 
Some of these were probably ploughed out and scattered. Others had been 
broken and scattered by Mr. White when digging post holes. In a few 
cases the bones were disturbed by the plough, so that their exact position 
could not be ascertained. The bones of the arms and legs of one of these 
disturbed burials (No. 68) were in a heap, with pieces of the skull lying 
on one side. 
Some of the bones, especially that of skeleton No. 79, w^ere m an excel- 
lent state of preservation. Parts of others (Nos. 13, 14, 15, 24, 37, 38, 43, 
44, 46, 74, 82, 83, and 84) were decayed. Most of the bones were fragile. 
A few of the bones showed healed fractures; several are pathological, 
including a deformed upper end of a femur (Skeleton No. 76), and there 
are a few anchylosed vertebrae and footbones. 
Artifacts were not found definitely belonging with the burials except 
with No. 21 (Plate XIX, figure 2), which had the beautifully formed pot- 
tery vessel illustrated in Plate XI between the body and the right femur. 
The pot was upright and filled with discoloured sand. It was broken when 
found; some of the pieces were 2 inches below the bottom, others miss- 
ing. A bone awd, found at the base of the skull of skeleton No. 40, and 
charcoal, charred corn, and pottery fragments found with other skeletons, 
apparently did not belong with the burials. 3 The bleached skull of a rac- 
i**Xhe corpse, wrapped in beaver skins, and placed upon a bier made of bark and rushes, with his^limbs bent 
and pressed tightly against bis body in order that, as they say, he may be committed to the earth in the same 
position in which he once lay in his mother’s womb (Jesuit Relations, I, 263-265). , ... ,, 
s Biard (Relation, 1616, III, p. 131), speaking of the burial of an Indian, says: Not lengthwise, but with the 
knees against the stomach and the head on the knees, as we are in our mother s womb See also, Kelation, lb5/-E>o, 
•Dawson (1: 431) noted a similar absence of artifacts from the graves at the site of Hochelaga; no artifacts, also, 
are found with human remains at Onondaga sites in Jefferson co., N.Y. {See Parker, 6. 327). 
