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
"About half a mile below this house, in a very thick part of the
woods, is an ancient Indian burial-place; it consists of eight vaults,
made of pine or cedar boards, closely connected, about eight feet
square and six in height, the top securely covered with wide boards,
sloping a little, so as to convey off the rain. The direction of all
these is east and west, the door being on the eastern side, and
partially stopped with wide boards, decorated with rude pictures of
men and other animals. On entering we found in some of them four dead
bodies, carefully wrapped in skins, tied with cords of grass and bark,
lying on a mat in a direction east and west, the other vaults
contained only bones, which in some of them were piled to a height of
four feet; on the tops of the vaults and on poles attached to them
hung brass kettles and frying-pans with holes in their bottoms,
baskets, bowls, sea-shells, skins, pieces of cloth, hair bags of
trinkets, and small bones, the offerings of friendship or affection,
which have been saved by a pious veneration from the ferocity of war
or the more dangerous temptation of individual gain. The whole of the
walls as well as the door were decorated with strange figures cut and
painted on them, and besides these were several wooden images of men,
some of them so old and decayed as to have almost lost their shape,
which were all placed against the sides of the vault. These images, as
well as those in the houses we have lately seen, do not appear to be
at all the objects of adoration in this place; they were most probably
intended as resemblances of those whose decease they indicate; and
when we observe them in houses they occupy the most conspicuous part,
but are treated more like ornaments than objects of worship. Near the
vaults which are still standing are the remains of others on the
ground, completely rotted and covered with moss; and as they are
formed of the most durable pine and cedar timber, there is every
appearance that for a very long series of years this retired spot has
been the depository for the Indians near this place."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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