An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians — John Shaqi
An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
History
An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites
"At last [says Mr. Lawson], the corpse is brought away from that
hurdle to the grave by four young men, attended by the relations, the
king, old men, and all the nation. When they come to the sepulchre,
which is about six feet deep and eight feet long, having at each end
(that is, at the head and foot) a light-wood or pitch-pine fork driven
close down the sides of the grave firmly into the ground (these two
forks are to contain a ridgepole, as you shall understand presently),
before they lay the corpse into the grave, they cover the bottom two
or three time over with the bark of trees; then they let down the
corpse (with two belts that the Indians carry their burdens withal)
very leisurely upon the said barks; then they lay over a pole of the
same wood in the two forks, and having a great many pieces of pitch-
pine logs about two foot and a half long, they stick them in the sides
of the grave down each end and near the top, through of where (sic) the
other ends lie in the ridge-pole, so that they are declining like the
roof of a house. These being very thick placed, they cover them many
times double with bark; then they throw the earth thereon that came
out of the grave and beat it down very firm. By this means the dead
body lies in a vault, nothing touching him. After a time the body is
taken up, the bones cleaned, and deposited in an ossuary called the
Quiogozon."
Dr Fordyce Grinnell, physician to the Wichita Agency, Indian
Territory, furnishes the following description of the burial
ceremonies of the Wichita Indians, who call themselves. "_Kitty-la-
tats_" or those of the tattooed eyelids.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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