Next should be noted this mode of disposing of the dead, a common custom
to a considerable extent among North American tribes, especially those
living on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, although we have
undoubted evidence that it was also practiced, among the more eastern
ones. This rite may be considered as peculiarly interesting from its
great antiquity, for Tegg[47] informs us that it reached as far back as
the Theban war, in the account of which mention is made of the burning
of Menœacus and Archemorus, who were contemporary with Jair, eighth
judge of Israel. It was common in the interior of Asia, and among the
ancient Greeks and Romans, and has also prevailed among the Hindoos up
to the present time. In fact, it is now rapidly becoming a custom among
civilized people.
While there is a certain degree of similarity between the performance of
this rite among the people spoken of and the Indians of North America,
yet, did space admit, a discussion might profitably be entered upon
regarding the details of it among the ancients and the origin of the
ceremony. As it is, simple narrations of cremation in the country, with
discursive notes and an account of its origin among the Nishinams of
California, by Stephen Powers,[48] seem to be all that is required at
this time:
The moon and the coyote wrought together in creating all things that
exist. The moon was good, but the coyote was bad. In making men and
women, the moon wished to so fashion their souls that when they died
they should return to the earth after two or three days as he
himself does when he dies. But the coyote was evil disposed and said
this should not be; but that when men died their friends should burn
their bodies and once a year make a great mourning for them and the
coyote prevailed. So, presently when deer died, they burned his
body, as the coyote had decreed and after a year they made a great
mourning for him. But the moon created the rattlesnake and caused it
to bite the coyote’s son, so that he died. Now, though the coyote
had been willing to burn the deer’s relations, he refused to burn
his own son. Then the moon said unto him, “This is your own rule.
You would have it so, and now your son shall be burned like the
others.” So he was burned, and after a year the coyote mourned for
him. Thus the law was established over the coyote also, and, as he
had dominion over men, it prevailed over men likewise.
This story is utterly worthless for itself, but it has its value in
that it shows there was a time when the California Indians did not
practice cremation, which is also established by other traditions.
It hints at the additional fact that the Nishinams to this day set
great store by the moon, consider it their benefactor in a hundred
ways and observe its changes for a hundred purposes.
Another myth regarding cremation is given by Adam Johnston in
Schoolcraft[49] and relates to the Bonaks, or root-diggers:
The first Indians that lived were coyotes. When one of their number
died the body became full of little animals or spirits, as they
thought then. After crawling over the body for a time they took all
manner of shapes, some that of the deer, others the elk, antelope,
etc. It was discovered however, that great numbers were taking wings
and for a while they sailed about in the air, but eventually they
would fly off to the moon. The old coyotes or Indians, fearing the
earth might become depopulated in this way, concluded to stop it at
once and ordered that when one of their people died the body must be
burnt. Ever after they continued to burn the bodies of deceased
persons.
Ross Cox gives an account of the process as performed by the Tolkotins
of Oregon:[50]
The ceremonies attending the dead are very singular and quite
peculiar to this tribe. The body of the deceased is kept nine days
laid out in his lodge and on the tenth it is buried. For this
purpose a rising ground is selected, on which are laid a number of
sticks, about 7 feet long, of cypress, neatly split and in the
interstices, placed a quantity of gummy wood. During these
operations invitations are dispatched to the natives of the
neighboring villages requesting their attendance at the ceremony.
When the preparations are perfected, the corpse is placed on the
pile, which is immediately ignited and during the process of
burning, the bystanders appear to be in a high state of merriment.
If a stranger happen to be present they invariably plunder him, but
if that pleasure be denied them, they never separate without
quarreling among themselves. Whatever property the deceased
possessed is placed about the corpse, and if he happened to be a
person of consequence, his friends generally purchase a capote,
a shirt, a pair of trousers, &c, which articles are also laid around
the pile. If the doctor who attended him has escaped uninjured, he
is obliged to be present at the ceremony, and for the last time
tries his skill in restoring the defunct to animation. Failing in
this, he throws on the body a piece of leather, or some other
article, as a present, which in some measure appeases the resentment
of his relatives, and preserves the unfortunate quack from being
maltreated. During the nine days the corpse is laid out, the widow
of the deceased is obliged to sleep along side it from sunset to
sunrise, and from this custom there is no relaxation even during the
hottest days of summer! While the doctor is performing his last
operations she must lie on the pile, and after the fire is applied
to it she cannot stir until the doctor orders her to be removed,
which, however, is never done until her body is completely covered
with blisters. After being placed on her legs, she is obliged to
pass her hands gently through the flame and collect some of the
liquid fat which issues from the corpse, with which she is permitted
to wet her face and body. When the friends of the deceased observe
the sinews of the legs and arms beginning to contract they compel
the unfortunate widow to go again on the pile, and by dint of hard
pressing to straighten those members.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--Tolkotin cremation.]
If during her husband’s life time she has been known to have
committed any act of infidelity or omitted administering to him
savory food or neglected his clothing, &c. she is now made to suffer
severely for such lapses of duty by his relations, who frequently
fling her in the funeral pile, from which she is dragged by her
friends, and thus between alternate scorching and cooling she is
dragged backwards and forwards until she falls into a state of
insensibility.
After the process of burning the corpse has terminated, the widow
collects the larger bones, which she rolls up in an envelope of
birch bark and which she is obliged for some years afterwards to
carry on her back. She is now considered and treated as a slave, all
the laborious duties of cooking, collecting food, &c. devolve on
her. She must obey the orders of all the women, and even of the
children belonging to the village, and the slightest mistake or
disobedience subjects her to the infliction of a heavy punishment.
The ashes of her husband are carefully collected and deposited in a
grave which it is her duty to keep free from weeds, and should any
such appear, she is obliged to root them out with her fingers.
During this operation her husband’s relatives stand by and beat her
in a cruel manner until the task is completed or she falls a victim
to their brutality. The wretched widows, to avoid this complicated
cruelty, frequently commit suicide. Should she, however, linger on
for three or four years, the friends of her husband agree to relieve
her from the her painful mourning. This is a ceremony of much
consequence and the preparations for it occupy a considerable time
generally from six to eight months. The hunters proceed to the
various districts in which deer and beaver abound and after
collecting large quantities of meat and fur return to the village.
The skins are immediately bartered for guns, ammunition, clothing,
trinkets, &c. Invitations are then sent to the inhabitants of the
various friendly villages, and when they have all assembled the
feast commences, and presents are distributed to each visitor. The
object of their meeting is then explained, and the woman is brought
forward, still carrying on her back the bones of her late husband,
which are now removed and placed in a covered box, which is nailed
or otherwise fastened to a post twelve feet high. Her conduct as a
faithful widow is next highly eulogized, and the ceremony of her
manumission is completed by one man powdering on her head the down
of birds and another pouring on it the contents of a bladder of oil.
She is then at liberty to marry again or lead a life of single
blessedness, but few of them, I believe, wish to encounter the risk
attending a second widowhood.
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.
Figure 10 is an ideal sketch of the cremation according to the
description given.
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[51] 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 most 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 but his relations lived
in St. Vincents, it was necessary to summon them to see the body,
and several months sometimes 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 bystanders 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.
Brohier quaintly remarks that this custom obliged women to take good
care of their husbands.
George Gibbs, in Schoolcraft,[52] 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,[53] cremation was common among the Se-nél
of California. He thus relates it.
The dead are mostly burned. Mr. Willard described to me a scene of
incremation that he 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 month two gold twenties, and other smaller coins in
his ears and hands, on his breast, &c. besides all his finery, his
feather mantles, plumes, clothing, shell money, his fancy bows,
painted arrows, &c. 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, offend 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 mouldering 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 an Indian
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 underground! 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 much absurd
insensibility to such a good bargain, “the blankets that the
American offered him $16 for were not worth half the money.”
After death the Se-nél 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, when she scatters it over the
ground, meantime rocking her body violently to and fro in a dance
and chanting the following chorous:
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.
Henry Gillman[54] 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 Fé Lake, Fla., 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 2½ 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 cranium 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 archæologists 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 proves 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[55] 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 loam 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:[56]
Up to 1819 the Cherokee 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, (1878) 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
archeological 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 it.” 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.