ABORIGINAL FUNEREAL CUSTOMS IN THE UNITED STATES. BY EDWIN A. BARBER. RESPECT for the dead, evinced by ceremonies, rites, or sol emn decorations, has been universal in all ages and all countries. Much information can be gleaned, as to the practices of prehistoric man, from the construction of graves and the relics obtained therefrom. The paleolithic and neolithic stone tools, and the later copper and bronze instruments, remain intact for centuries; but iron rusts and rapidly crumbles away, while wood decays, and all other remains of the iron age vanish in a few years, often before the particles of the human frame-work have become disintegrated. More, therefore, can be learned relative to the modes of sepulture of the ancients than the methods of burial of much more recent tribes, and we are frequently compelled to draw conclusions in regard to the customs employed by the Indians of a century or so ago from the usages of their ancestry, since it is a well-established fact that these are handed down from generation to generation, with but few, if any, improvements or modifications. Comparatively little is known of the funereal rites of our modern savages, when we consider the great number of tribes; a fact explained by their distant removal from the centre of civilization, the secrecy of their ceremonies, and the superstition of the savage mind in regard to death. Strangers are seldom permitted to witness the disposition of Indian bodies, and nearly all such information has been obtained from subsequent grave-desecration. So far as our present knowledge extends, as regards aboriginal burial in the United States, there were four methods, namely: I. By inhumation (subterrene). Bodies were interred either in ordinary graves, in mounds, or in caves. The ancient Pueblos of the Pacific slope generally practiced grave-burial. The corpse was placed three or four feet beneath the surface of the earth, and at its head were arranged food vases, ornaments, and implements of the chase. The 1 The word graves in this paper is used in its broadest acceptation, including all places of deposit for dead bodies. surface of the grave was level with the surrounding ground, and its dimensions were defined by stones set on edge in the soil, forming a parallelogram five or six feet in length and from two to four in breadth. The ragged edges of the slabs projected above the surface from six inches to eighteen, and occasionally a head-stone reached to the height of two feet. On none of the latter, however, has an inscription of any kind ever been observed differing in this respect from the wooden adjedatigs of the Da kotas. Many interesting graves have been discovered and examined throughout the Cañon of the Rio-Mancos, in Southwestern Colorado. Captain John Moss, of that State, unearthed from one of these a perfect skull and some fragments of other bones of a human skeleton. From another he took several entire and curiously shaped vessels of pottery, now in possession of Hayden's United States Geological Survey of the Territories, at Washington. It would appear from this that the deceased were supplied with vessels of food and drink to assist them on their journey to the mysterious hereafter. In addition to this custom, great quantities of pottery were strewn or broken over the surfaces of graves, in honor of the departed. Occasionally large vases or other vessels are found in a state of tolerable preservation, or, indeed, entire; these had been placed there by the friends of the deceased; but whether they were originally full of food, it is difficult to determine. In the neighborhood of Aztec Springs are long series of graves extending for miles along the valley west of the great Mesa Verde. In a particular spot, an arroyo has cut through one of these graves, showing a vertical section of it. About four feet from the level of the valley a quantity of broken pottery and charred wood may yet be seen, the former probably at one time constituting perfect food vessels, arranged at the head of the corpse; but the skeleton had disappeared after the exposure of many years. Near the beginning of the Cañon of the Hovenweep, a skeleton was seen partially protruding from the eastern bank of this arroyo. It was lying about three feet below the surface, the face pointing eastward, the back of the skull only being visible. On removing it from the bank the skull fell to pieces, and but two or three of the long bones could be found, the rest of the skeleton having crumbled to dust. Sage-brush (Artemisia), was growing over the grave, indicating a growth of at least a hundred 1 See Figure 12, Pl. ix., American Naturalist for August, 1876. years, and the skeleton must have been placed there long before the vegetation commenced. Several ancient skeletons were exhumed in the Cañon of the Montezuma in Southeastern Utah, where great numbers of graves were found. In one tomb was a portion of a skeleton, including the long bones and some of the phalanges. The skull had entirely disappeared. From another grave we took a wellpreserved skull and other portions of the skeleton, all of which have been removed to Washington. This latter skull, however, is probably that of a modern Navajo. Along the valley of the Rio San Juan lies one of the most extensive aboriginal cemeteries. The graves continue uninterruptedly for several miles, and thousands of subjects were evidently here buried. The only traces of buildings are some low, circular mounds, about fifty feet in diameter, indicating the former existence of adobe structures, over which occur great quantities of broken pottery and a number of arrow-points. Several tribes were accustomed to incase their dead in stone boxes or tombs. Among these were the Lenni Lenape, or Delawares, of Pennsylvania, although the graves already opened show an antiquity of probably not more than one hundred and fifty or two hundred years, because the native contents, consisting of fragments of rude pottery and ornaments, are associated usually with articles of European manufacture, such as glass beads, iron or copper implements, and portions of fire-arms. A number of graves have been examined in the vicinity of the Delaware Water Gap. The tumuli were scarcely distinguishable, but were surrounded by traces of shallow trenches. The skeletons lay at a depth of about three feet, and were in almost every instance inclosed in rude stone coffins. In one case the body had been placed in a slight excavation, facing the east, and above it a low mound had been built. The second variety of inhumation was tumulus burial. This prevailed to a great extent among the mound builders of the Mississippi Valley. In some instances a mound contained but one body, while in others it constituted a general burial ground. The dead were generally near the original level of the surface and the mounds heaped over them. No particular posture of the body was assumed; sometimes it reclined; occasionally it was sitting, but most frequently it was extended on the back. The face was often pointed eastward, though no general rule was observed in respect to orientation. A third method of inhumation was cave burial, such as was employed by the troglodytes of the Vézère, in Southern France. This was not common in the United States, though isolated instances are recorded, such as the remains found in the deposits of a cave in Breckenridge County, Kentucky, and also in caverns through the cañons of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Cremation was of two kinds: in graves and in urns. The former was practiced, to some extent, by the ancient Pueblos of Arizona and Utah. The body was burned and the ashes deposited in shallow tombs, marked in the ordinary way by slabs of stone set on edge around the spot. Several tribes of the Rio Gila in Southern Arizona and some in Texas were in the habit of burying the bones of their departed in urns. Sometimes the skull was placed face downwards in the mouth of the vase, and served as a sort of cover or lid. In the immense cave town on the Rio de Chelly (examined by a portion of Hayden's United States Geological Survey), seven burial urns were unearthed, which had been placed in a group, their edges touching. They had been hidden just below the surface soil, on a mound of earth at the foot of the walls of the pueblo. Removing them carefully from their positions, it was found that they were about fifteen inches in height, six or seven across the mouth, made of coarse, sandy clay, and burned to a sooty blackness. The vessels were filled to the mouth with some substance, which, on examination, proved to be a white adobe cement, below which appeared fragments of charcoal, burned corn cobs, and small pieces of highly glazed pottery. No indications of charred bones were found in them, however, and it could not be determined satisfactorily whether they had originally contained sacrificial offerings merely, or whether they held human remains. At the foot of the village an extensive grave-yard was discovered, marked off into square and circular tombs by the usual upright stones. A few hundred yards beyond this, up the stream, was another extensive place of interment; so that while the latter was the usual mode of burial, it would seem as though cremation had been resorted to by the people, while the enemy was attacking the town; for it is evident that there had been a great and bloody fight here, which can be proved by the quantity of arrow points and numerous other indi cations. 1 The Spaniards, as late as the sixteenth century, found some tribes in this portion of the West, which cremated their dead. Captain Fernando Alarcon, in an account of his expedition in 1540, mentions a people near the Colorado River which lived in great houses of stone and burned their corpses. It is a matter of certainty that cremation was performed without urns; that is, bodies were burned in graves or stone tombs. At the junction of the two dry arroyos, the McElmo and the Hovenweep, a considerable community once existed. On the point of a high mesa, overlooking the water-courses for many miles to the north and south, a large burial ground was discovered, marked off by upright stones, the longest being always at the head of the grave. On opening several of these with pick and shovel, it was found that the solid bed-rock appeared at a depth of six inches to a foot and a half, so that it was impossible to have here buried any natural human bodies. It was found, on further investigation, that in each one was a quantity of black dust and some fine white powder. The majority of these graves were rectangular, but among the rest were two or three large circular mounds, about twenty feet each in diameter, where had probably been laid the ashes of persons of note or greater wealth. In Southwestern Colorado, the valley northeast of Ute Mountain was covered with these square inclosures, among which could be traced the foundation mounds of very ancient abodes, which had been constructed, for the most part, of clay. Among these graves we spent an entire morning, but were rewarded by the discovery of nothing except layers of fine white dust and some small fragments of burnt wood. The graves were very old, and it seemed not strange that a thousand or more years had destroyed nearly all traces of their former contents. And so in the immediate neighborhood of every considerable pueblo, we found graves more or less numerous. From the Alta California I extract the following account as given by Mr. J. A. Parker, Superintendent of the Montezuma Canal Company of Southwestern Arizona. In speaking of the ancient ruins and human remains of Pueblo Viejo Valley, he says, "The human bones show unmistakable evidence of having been burned, and crumbled to pieces upon being handled. Several ollas (pronounced 6-yahs)-jug-shaped, earthern vessels, now used by the Indians for holding water-were found, which contained ashes, small pieces of human bones, and fragments of charcoal, which would indicate that cremation was practiced by that extinct people." Prof. John L. LeConte describes the ceremony of cremation as performed by the Cocopa Indians of the Rio Gila, and witnessed by him in the year 1850: "A short distance from the collection of thatched huts which composed the village a shallow |