Books: An introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
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H. C. Yarrow >> An introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
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"The men are condemned to a similar ordeal, but they do not bear it
with equal fortitude, and numbers fly to distant quarters to avoid the
brutal treatment which custom has established as a kind of religious
rite."
Perhaps a short review of some of the peculiar and salient points of
this narrative may be permitted. It is stated that the corpse is kept
nine days after death--certainly a long period of time, when it is
remembered that Indians as a rule endeavor to dispose of their dead as
soon as possible. This may be accounted for on the supposition that it
is to give the friends and relatives an opportunity of assembling,
verifying the death, and of making proper preparations for the
ceremony. With regard to the verification of the dead person, William
Sheldon [Footnote: Trans. Am. Antiq. Soc., 1820, vol. 1, p 377] gives
an account of a similar custom which was common among the Caraibs of
Jamaica, and which seems to throw some light upon the unusual
retention of deceased persons by the tribe in question, although it
must be admitted that this is mere hypothesis:
"They had some very extraordinary customs respecting deceased persons.
When one of them died, it was necessary that all his relations should
see him and examine the body in order to ascertain that he died a
natural death. They acted so rigidly on this principle, that if one
relative remained who had not seen the body all the others could not
convince that one that the death was natural. In such a case the
absent relative considered himself as bound in honor to consider all
the other relatives as having been accessories to the death of the
kinsman, and did not rest until he had killed one of them to revenge
the death of the deceased. If a Caraib died in Martinico or Guadaloupe
and his relations lived in St. Vincents, it was necessary to summon
them to see the body, and several months sometime elapsed before it
could be finally interred. When a Caraib died he was immediately
painted all over with _roucou_, and had his mustachios and the
black streaks in his face made with a black paint, which was different
from that used in their lifetime. A kind of grave was then dug in the
_carbet_ where he died, about 4 feet square and 6 or 7 feet deep.
The body was let down in it, when sand was thrown in, which reached to
the knees, and the body was placed in it in a sitting posture,
resembling that in which they crouched round the fire or the table
when alive, with the elbows on the knees and the palms of the hands
against the cheeks. No part of the body touched the outside of the
grave, which was covered with wood and mats until all the relations
had examined it. When the customary examinations and inspections were
ended the hole was filled, and the bodies afterwards remained
undisturbed. The hair of the deceased was kept tied behind. In this
way bodies have remained several months without any symptoms of decay
or producing any disagreeable smell. The _roucou_ not only
preserved them from the sun, air, and insects during their lifetime,
but probably had the same effect after death. The arms of the Caraibs
were placed by them when they were covered over for inspection, and
they were finally buried with them."
Again, we are told that during the burning the by-standers are very
merry. This hilarity is similar to that shown by the Japanese at a
funeral, who rejoice that the troubles and worries of the world are
over for the fortunate dead. The plundering of strangers present, it
may be remembered, also took place among the Indians of the Carolinas.
As already mentioned on a preceding page, the cruel manner in which
the widow is treated seems to be a modification of the Hindoo suttee,
but if the account be true, it would appear that death might be
preferable to such torments.
It is interesting to note that in Corsica, as late as 1743, if a
husband died women threw themselves upon the widow and beat her
severely. Bruhier quaintly remarks that this custom obliged women to
take good care of their husbands.
George Gibbs, in Schoolcraft, [Footnote: Hist. Indian Tribes of the
United States, 1853, part iii, p. 112.] states that among the Indians
of Clear Lake, California, "the body is consumed upon a scaffold built
over a hole, into which the ashes are thrown and covered"
According to Stephen Powers, [Footnote: Contrib. to N. A. Ethnol.,
1877, vol. iii, p. 169.] cremation was common among the Se-nel of
California. He thus relates it--
"The dead are mostly burned. Mr. Willard described to me a scene of
incremation that be once witnessed which was frightful for its
exhibitions of fanatic frenzy and infatuation. The corpse was that of
a wealthy chieftain, and as he lay upon the funeral pyre they placed
in his mouth two gold twenties, and other smaller coins in his ears
and hands, on his breast, etc., besides all his finery, his feather
mantles, plumes, clothing, shell money, his fancy bows, painted
arrows, etc. When the torch was applied they set up a mournful
ululation, chanting and dancing about him, gradually working
themselves into a wild and ecstatic raving, which seemed almost a
demoniacal possession, leaping, howling, lacerating their flesh. Many
seemed to lose all self-control. The younger English-speaking Indians
generally lend themselves charily to such superstitious work,
especially if American spectators are present, but even they were
carried away by the old contagious frenzy of their race. One stripped
off a broadcloth coat, quite new and fine, and ran frantically yelling
and cast it upon the blazing-pile. Another rushed up and was about to
throw on a pile of California blankets, when a white man, to test his
sincerity, offered him $16 for them, jingling the bright coins before
his eyes, but the savage (for such he had become again for the
moment), otherwise so avaricious, hurled him away with a yell of
execration and ran and threw his offering into the flames. Squaws,
even more frenzied, wildly flung upon the pyre all they had in the
world--their dearest ornaments, their gaudiest dresses, their strings
of glittering shells. Screaming, wailing, tearing their hair, beating
their breasts in their mad and insensate infatuation, some of them
would have cast themselves bodily into the flaming ruins and perished
with the chief had they not been restrained by their companions. Then
the bright, swift flames with their hot tongues licked this 'cold
obstruction' into chemic change, and the once 'delighted spirit' of
the savage was borne up....
"It seems as if the savage shared in Shakspeare's shudder at the
thought of rotting in the dismal grave, for it is the one passion of
his superstition to think of the soul of his departed friend set free
and purified by the swift purging heat of the flames, not dragged down
to be clogged and bound in the moldering body, but borne up in the
soft, warm chariots of the smoke toward the beautiful sun, to bask in
his warmth and light, and then, to fly away to the Happy Western Land.
What wonder if the Indian shrinks with unspeakable horror from the
thought of _burying his friend's soul!_--of pressing and ramming
down with pitiless clods that inner something which once took such
delight in the sweet light of the sun! What wonder if it takes years
to persuade him to do otherwise and follow our custom! What wonder if
even then he does it with sad fears and misgivings! Why not let him
keep his custom! In the gorgeous landscapes and balmy climate of
California and India incremation is as natural to the savage as it is
for him to love the beauty of the sun. Let the vile Esquimaux and the
frozen Siberian bury their dead if they will; it matters little, the
earth is the same above as below, or to them the bosom of the earth
may seem even the better; but in California do not blame the savage if
he recoils at the thought of going under ground! This soft, pale halo
of the lilac hills--ah, let him console himself if he will with the
belief that his lost friend enjoys it still! The narrator concluded by
saying that they destroyed full $500 worth of property. 'The
blankets,' said he with a fine Californian scorn of such absurd
insensibility to a good bargain, 'the blankets that the American
offered him $16 for were not worth half the money.'
"After death the Se-nel hold that bad Indians return into coyotes.
Others fall off a bridge which all souls must traverse, or are hooked
off by a raging bull at the further end, while the good escape across.
Like the Yokaia and the Konkan, they believe it necessary to nourish
the spirits of the departed for the space of a year. This is generally
done by a squaw, who takes pinole in her blanket, repairs to the scene
of the incremation, or to places hallowed by the memory of the dead,
where she scatters it over the ground, meantime rocking her body
violently to and fro in a dance and chanting the following chorus:
Hel-lel-li-ly,
Hel-lel-lo,
Hel-lel-lu.
"This refrain is repeated over and over indefinitely, but the words
have no meaning whatever."
Mr. Henry Gillman [Footnote: Amer. Natural, November, 1878, p. 753]
has published an interesting account of the exploration of a mound
near Waldo, Fla., in which he found abundant evidence that cremation
had existed among the former Indian population. It is as follows:
"In opening a burial-mound at Cade's Pond, a small body of water
situated about two miles northeastward of Santa Fe Lake, Florida, the
writer found two instances of cremation, in each of which the skull of
the subject, which was unconsumed, was used as the depository of his
ashes. The mound contained besides a large number of human burials,
the bones being much decayed. With them were deposited a great number
of vessels of pottery, many of which are painted in brilliant colors,
chiefly red, yellow, and brown, and some of them ornamented with
indented patterns, displaying not a little skill in the ceramic art,
though they are reduced to fragments. The first of the skulls referred
to was exhumed at a depth of 2 1/2 feet. It rested on its apex (base
uppermost), and was filled with fragments of half incinerated human
bones, mingled with dark-colored dust, and the sand which invariably
sifts into crania under such circumstances. Immediately beneath the
skull lay the greater part of a human tibia, presenting the peculiar
compression known as a platycnemism to the degree of affording a
latitudinal index of .512; while beneath and surrounding it lay the
fragments of a large number of human bones, probably constituting an
entire individual. In the second instance of this peculiar mode in
cremation, the cranium was discovered on nearly the opposite side of
the mound, at a depth of 2 feet, and, like the former, resting on its
apex. It was filled with a black mass--the residuum of burnt human
bones mingled with sand. At three feet to the eastward lay the shaft
of a flattened tibia, which presents the longitudinal index of .527.
Both the skulls were free from all action of fire, and though
subsequently crumbling to pieces on their removal, the writer had
opportunity to observe their strong resemblance to the small
orthocephalic crania which he had exhumed from mounds in Michigan. The
same resemblance was perceptible in the other crania belonging to this
mound. The small, narrow, retreating frontal, prominent parietal
protuberances, rather protuberant occipital, which was not in the
least compressed, the well-defined supraciliary ridges, and the
superior border of the orbits, presenting a quadrilateral outline,
were also particularly noticed. The lower facial bones, including the
maxillaries, were wanting. On consulting such works as are accessible
to him, the writer finds no mention of any similar relics having been
discovered in mounds in Florida or elsewhere. For further particulars
reference may be had to a paper on the subject read before the Saint
Louis meeting of the American Association, August, 1878."
The discoveries made by Mr. Gillman would seem to indicate that the
people whose bones he excavated resorted to a process of partial
cremation, some examples of which will be given on another page. The
use of crania as receptacles is certainly remarkable, if not unique.
The fact is well known to archaeologists that whenever cremation was
practiced by Indians it was customary as a rule to throw into the
blazing pyre all sorts of articles supposed to be useful to the dead,
but no instance is known of such a wholesale destruction of property
as occurred when the Indians of southern Utah burned their dead, for
Dr. E. Foreman relates, in the American Naturalist for July, 1876, the
account of the exploration of a mound in that Territory, which proved
that at the death of a person not only were the remains destroyed by
fire, but all articles of personal property, even the very habitation
which had served as a home. After the process was completed, what
remained unburned was covered with earth and a mound formed.
A. S. Tiffany [Footnote: Proc. Dav. Acad. Nat Soc., 1867-76, p. 64.]
describes what he calls a cremation-furnace, discovered within seven
miles of Davenport, Iowa:
"... Mound seven miles below the city, a projecting point known as
Eagle Point. The surface was of the usual black soil to the depth of
from 6 to 8 inches. Next was found a burnt indurated clay, resembling
in color and texture a medium-burned brick, and about 30 inches in
depth. Immediately beneath this clay was a bed of charred human
remains 6 to 18 inches thick. This rested upon the unchanged and
undisturbed loess of the bluffs, which formed the floor of the pit.
Imbedded in this floor of unburned clay were a few very much
decomposed, but unburned, human bones. No implements of any kind were
discovered The furnace appears to have been constructed by excavating
the pit and placing at the bottom of it the bodies or skeletons which
had possibly been collected from scaffolds, and placing the fuel among
and above the bodies, with a covering of poles or split timbers
extending over and resting upon the earth, with the clay covering
above, which latter we now find resting upon the charred remains. The
ends of the timber covering, where they were protected by the earth
above and below, were reduced to charcoal, parallel pieces of which
were found at right angles to the length of the mound. No charcoal was
found among or near the remains, the combustion there having been
complete. The porous and softer portions of the bones were reduced to
pulverized bone-black. Mr. Stevens also examined the furnace. The
mound had probably not been opened after the burning."
This account is doubtless true, but the inferences may be incorrect.
Many more accounts of cremation among different tribes might be given
to show how prevalent was the custom, but the above are thought to be
sufficiently distinctive to serve as examples.
PARTIAL CREMATION.
Allied somewhat to cremation is a peculiar mode of burial which is
supposed to have taken place among the Cherokees or some other tribe
of North Carolina, and which is thus described by J. W Foster.
[Footnote: Pre-Historic Races, 1873, p. 149.]
"Up to 1819 the Cherokees held possession of this region, when, in
pursuance of a treaty, they vacated a portion of the lands lying in
the valley of the Little Tennessee River. In 1821 Mr. McDowell
commenced farming. During the first season's operations the plowshare,
in passing over a certain portion of a field, produced a hollow
rumbling sound, and in exploring for the cause the first object met
with was a shallow layer of charcoal, beneath which was a slab of
burnt clay about 7 feet in length and 4 feet broad, which, in the
attempt to remove, broke into several fragments. Nothing beneath this
slab was found, but on examining its under side, to his great surprise
there was the mould of a naked human figure. Three of these burned
clay sepulchers were thus raised and examined during the first year of
his occupancy, since which time none have been found until
recently.... During the past season (1872) the plow brought up another
fragment of one of these moulds, revealing the impress of a plump
human arm.
"Col. C. W. Jenkes, the superintendent of the Corundum mines, which
have recently been opened in that vicinity, advises me thus:
"'We have Indians all about us, with traditions extending back for 500
years. In this time they have buried their dead under huge piles of
stones. We have at one point the remains of 600 warriors under one
pile, but a grave has just been opened of the following construction:
A pit was dug, into which the corpse was placed, face upward; then
over it was moulded a covering of mortar, fitting the form and
features. On this was built a hot fire, which formed an entire shield
of pottery for the corpse. The breaking up of one such tomb gives a
perfect cast of the form of the occupant.'
"Colonel Jenkes, fully impressed with the value of these
archaeological discoveries, detailed a man to superintend the
exhumation, who proceeded to remove the earth from the mould, which he
reached through a layer of charcoal, and then with a trowel excavated
beneath it. The clay was not thoroughly baked, and no impression of
the corpse was left, except of the forehead and that portion of the
limbs between the ankles and the knees, and even these portions of the
mould crumbled. The body had been placed east and west, the head
toward the east. 'I had hoped,' continues Mr. McDowell, 'that the cast
in the clay would be as perfect as one I found 51 years ago, a
fragment of which I presented to Colonel Jenkes, with the impression
of a part of the arm on one side and on the other of the fingers, that
had pressed down the soft clay upon the body interred beneath.' The
mound-builders of the Ohio Valley, as has been shown, often placed a
layer of clay over the dead, but not in immediate contact, upon which
they builded fires; and the evidence that cremation was often resorted
to in their disposition are too abundant to be gainsaid."
This statement is corroborated by Mr. Wilcox: [Footnote: Proc. Acad.
Nat. Soc. Phila., Nov 1874, p 168.]
"Mr. Wilcox also stated that when recently in North Carolina his
attention was called to an unusual method of burial by an ancient race
of Indians in that vicinity. In numerous instances burial places were
discovered where the bodies had been placed with the face up and
covered with a coating of plastic clay about an inch thick. A pile of
wood was then placed on top and fired, which consumed the body and
baked the clay, which retained the impression of the body. This was
then lightly covered with earth."
It is thought no doubt can attach to the statements given, but the
cases are remarkable as being the only instances of the kind met with
in the extensive range of reading preparatory to a study of the
subject of burial, although it must be observed that Bruhier states
that the ancient Ethiopians covered the corpses of their dead with
plaster (probably mud), but they did not burn these curious coffins.
Another method, embracing both burial and cremation, has been
practiced by the Pitt River or Achomawi Indians of California, who
"bury the body in the ground in a standing position, the shoulders
nearly even with the ground. The grave is prepared by digging a hole
of sufficient depth and circumference to admit the body, the head
being cut off. In the grave are placed the bows and arrows, bead-work,
trappings, &c., belonging to the deceased; quantities of food,
consisting of dried fish, roots, herbs, &c., were placed with the body
also. The grave was then filled up, covering the headless body; then a
bundle of fagots was brought and placed on the grave by the different
members of the tribe, and on these fagots the head was placed, the
pile fired, and the head consumed to ashes; after this was done, the
female relatives of the deceased, who had appeared as mourners with
their faces blackened with a preparation resembling tar or paint,
dipped their fingers in the ashes of the cremated head and made three
marks on their right cheek. This constituted the mourning garb, the
period of which lasted until this black substance wore off from the
face. In addition to this mourning, the blood female relatives of the
deceased (who, by the way, appeared to be a man of distinction) had
their hair cropped short. I noticed while the head was burning that
the old women of the tribe sat on the ground, forming a large circle,
inside of which another circle of young girls were formed standing and
swaying their bodies to and fro and singing a mournful ditty. This was
the only burial of a male that I witnessed. The custom of burying
females is very different, their bodies being wrapped or bundled up in
skins and laid away in caves, with their valuables, and in some cases
food being placed with them in their mouths. Occasionally money is
left to pay for food in the spirit land."
This account is furnished by General Charles H. Tompkins, deputy
quartermaster-general, United States Army, who witnessed the burial
above related, and is the more interesting as it seems to be the only
well-authenticated case on record, although E. A. Barber [Footnote:
American Natural, Sept., 1878, p. 699.] has described what may
possibly have been a case of cremation like the one above noted:
"A very singular case of aboriginal burial was brought to my notice
recently by Mr. William Klingbeil, of Philadelphia. On the New Jersey
bank of the Delaware River, a short distance below Gloucester City,
the skeleton of a man was found buried in a standing position, in a
high, red, sandy-clay bluff overlooking the stream. A few inches below
the surface the neck bones were found, and below these the remainder
of the skeleton, with the exception of the bones of the hands and
feet. The skull being wanting, it could not be determined whether the
remains were those of an Indian or of a white man, but in either case
the sepulture was peculiarly aboriginal. A careful exhumation and
critical examination by Mr. Klingbeil disclosed the fact that around
the lower extremities of the body had been placed a number of large
stones, which revealed traces of fire, in conjunction with charred
wood, and the bones of the feet had undoubtedly been consumed. This
fact makes it appear reasonably certain that the subject had been
executed, probably as a prisoner of war. A pit had been dug, in which
he was placed erect, and a fire kindled around him. Then he had been
buried alive, or, at least, if he did not survive the fiery ordeal,
his body was imbedded in the earth, with the exception of his head,
which was left protruding above the surface. As no trace of the
cranium could be found, it seems probable that the head had either
been burned or severed from the body and removed, or else left a prey
to ravenous birds. The skeleton, which would have measured fully six
feet in height, was undoubtedly that of a man."
Blacking the face, as is mentioned in the first account, is a custom
known to have existed among many tribes throughout the world, but in
some cases different earths and pigments are used as signs of
mourning. The natives of Guinea smear a chalky substance over their
bodies as an outward expression of grief, and it is well known that
the ancient Israelites threw ashes on their heads and garments.
Placing food with the corpse or in its mouth, and money in the hand,
finds its analogue in the custom of the ancient Romans, who, some time
before interment, placed a piece of money in the corpse's mouth, which
was thought to be Charon's fare for wafting the departed soul over the
Infernal River. Besides this, the corpse's mouth was furnished with a
certain cake, composed of flour, honey, &c. This was designed to
appease the fury of Cerberus, the infernal doorkeeper, and to procure
a safe and quiet entrance. These examples are curious coincidences, if
nothing more.
BURIAL ABOVE GROUND.
Our attention should next be turned to sepulture above the ground,
including lodge, house, box, scaffold, tree, and canoe burial, and the
first example which may be given is that of burial in lodges, which is
by no means common. The description which follows is by Stansbury,
[Footnote: Explorations of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah,
1852, p. 43.] and relates to the Sioux:
"I put on my moccasins, and, displaying my wet shirt like a flag to
the wind, we proceeded to the lodges which had attracted our
curiosity. There were five of them pitched upon the open prairie, and
in them we found the bodies of nine Sioux laid out upon the ground,
wrapped in their robes of buffalo-skin, with their saddles, spears,
camp-kettles, and all their accoutrements piled up around them. Some
lodges contained three, others only one body, all of which were more
or less in a state of decomposition. A short distance apart from these
was one lodge which, though small, seemed of rather superior
pretensions, and was evidently pitched with great care. It contained
the body of a young Indian girl of sixteen or eighteen years, with a
countenance presenting quite an agreeable expression; she was richly
dressed in leggins of fine scarlet cloth elaborately ornamented; a new
pair of moccasins, beautifully embroidered with porcupine quills, was
on her feet, and her body was wrapped in two superb buffalo-robes
worked in like manner; she had evidently been dead but a day or two,
and to our surprise a portion of the upper part of her person was
bare, exposing the face and a part of the breast, as if the robes in
which she was wrapped had by some means been disarranged, whereas all
the other bodies were closely covered up. It was, at the time, the
opinion of our mountaineers that these Indians must have fallen in an
encounter with a party of Crows; but I subsequently learned that they
had all died of the cholera, and that this young girl, being
considered past recovery, had been arranged by her friends in the
habiliments of the dead, inclosed in the lodge alive, and abandoned to
her fate, so fearfully alarmed were the Indians by this to them novel
and terrible disease."
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