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
kings and war captains, being a more magnificent cabin reared at the
public expense. This Quiogozon is an object of veneration, in which
the writer says he has known the king, old men, and conjurers to spend
several days with their idols and dead kings, and into which he could
never gain admittance."
Another class of mummies are those which have been found in the
saltpeter and other caves of Kentucky, and it is still a matter of
doubt with archaeologists whether any special pains were taken to
preserve these bodies, many believing that the impregnation of the
soil with certain minerals would account for the condition in which
the specimens were found. Charles Wilkins [Footnote: Trans. Amer.
Antiq. Soc., 1820, vol. 1, p. 360] thus describes one:
"... exsiccated body of a female ... was found at the depth of about
10 feet from the surface of the cave bedded in clay strongly
impregnated with nitre, placed in a sitting posture, incased in broad
stones standing on their edges, with a flat stone covering the whole.
It was enveloped in coarse clothes, ... the whole wrapped in deer-
skins, the hair of which was shaved off in the manner in which the
Indians prepare them for market. Enclosed in the stone coffin were the
working utensils, beads, feathers, and other ornaments of dress which
belonged to her."
The next description is by Dr Samuel L. Mitchill: [Footnote: Trans.
and Coll. Amer. Antiq. Soc., 1820, vol. 1, p. 318]
[A letter from Dr. Mitchill of New York, to Samuel M. Burnside, Esq.,
Secretary of the American Antiquarian Society, on North American
Antiquities.]
"Aug 24th, 1815
"DEAR SIR: I offer you some observations on a curious piece of
American antiquity now in New York, It is a human body [Footnote: A
mummy of this kind, of a person of mature age, discovered in Kentucky,
is now in the cabinet of the American Antiquarian Society. It is a
female. Several human bodies were found enwrapped carefully in skins
and cloths. They were inhumed below the floor of the cave,
_inhumed_, and not lodged in catacombs.] found in one of the
limestone caverns of Kentucky. It is a perfect exsiccation, all the
fluids are dried up. The skin, bones, and other firm parts are in a
state of entire preservation. I think it enough to have puzzled Bryant
and all the archaologists.
"This was found in exploring a calcareous cave in the neighborhood of
Glasgow for saltpetre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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