In connection with cave burial, the subject of mummifying or embalming
the dead may be taken up, as most specimens of the kind have generally
been found in such repositories.
It might be both interesting and instructive to search out and discuss
the causes which have led many nations or tribes to adopt certain
processes with a view to prevent that return to dust which all flesh
must sooner or later experience, but the necessarily limited scope of
this preliminary work precludes more than a brief mention of certain
theories advanced by writers of note, and which relate to the ancient
Egyptians. Possibly at the time the Indians of America sought to
preserve their dead from decomposition some such ideas may have
animated them, but on this point no definite information has been
procured. In the final volume an effort will be made to trace out the
origin of mummification among the Indians and aborigines of this
continent.
The Egyptians embalmed, according to Cassien, because during the time
of the annual inundation no interments could take place, but it is
more than likely that this hypothesis is entirely fanciful. It is said
by others they believed that so long as the body was preserved from
corruption the soul remained in it. Herodotus states that it was to
prevent bodies from becoming a prey to animal voracity. "They did not
inter them," says he, "for fear of their being eaten by worms; nor did
they burn, considering fire as a ferocious beast, devouring everything
which it touched." According to Diodorus of Sicily, embalmment
originated in filial piety and respect. De Maillet, however, in his
tenth letter on Egypt, attributes it entirely to a religious belief
insisted upon by the wise men and priests, who taught their disciples
that after a certain number of cycles, of perhaps thirty or forty
thousand years, the entire universe became as it was at birth, and the
souls of the dead returned into the same bodies in which they had
lived, provided that the body remained free from corruption, and that
sacrifices were freely offered as oblations to the manes of the
deceased. Considering the great care taken to preserve the dead, and
the ponderously solid nature of their tombs, it is quite evident that
this theory obtained many believers among the people. M. Gannal
believes embalmment to have been suggested by the affectionate
sentiments of our nature--a desire to preserve as long as possible the
mortal remains of loved ones; but MM. Volney and Pariaet think it was
intended to obviate, in hot climates especially, danger from
pestilence, being primarily a cheap and simple process, elegance and
luxury coming later; and the Count de Caylus states the idea of
embalmment was derived from the finding of desiccated bodies which the
burning sands of Egypt had hardened and preserved. Many other
suppositions have arisen, but it is thought the few given above are
sufficient to serve as an introduction to embalmment in North America.
From the statements of the older writers on North American Indians, it
appears that mummifying was resorted to among certain tribes of
Virginia, the Carolinas, and Florida, especially for people of
distinction, the process in Virginia for the kings, according to
Beverly, [Footnote: Hist. of Virginia, 1722, p 185] being as follows:
"The _Indians_ are religious in preserving the Corpses of their
Kings and Rulers after Death, which they order in the following
manner: First, they neatly flay off the Skin as entire as they can,
slitting it only in the Back; then they pick all the Flesh off from
the Bones as clean as possible, leaving the Sinews fastned to the
Bones, that they may preserve the Joints together: then they dry the
Bones in the Sun, and put them into the Skin again, which in the mean
time has been kept from drying or shrinking; when the Bones are placed
right in the Skin, they nicely fill up the Vacuities, with a very fine
white Sand. After this they sew up the Skin again, and the Body looks
as if the Flesh had not been removed. They take care to keep the Skin
from shrinking, by the help of a little Oil or Grease, which saves it
also from Corruption. The Skin being thus prepar'd, they lay it in an
apartment for that purpose, upon a large Shelf rais'd above the Floor.
This Shelf is spread with Mats, for the Corpse to rest easy on, and
skreened with the same, to keep it from the Dust. The Flesh they lay
upon Hurdles in the Sun to dry, and when it is thoroughly dried, it is
sewed up in a Basket, and set at the Feet of the Corpse, to which it
belongs. In this place also they set up a _Quioccos,_ or Idol,
which they believe will be a Guard to the Corpse. Here Night and Day
one or other of the Priests must give his Attendance, to take care of
the dead Bodies. So great an Honour and Veneration have these ignorant
and unpolisht People for their Princes even after they are dead."
It should be added that, in the writer's opinion, this account and
others like it are somewhat apocryphal, and it has been copied and
recopied a score of times.
According to Pinkerton [Footnote: Collection of Voyages, 1812, vol.
XIII, p 39.], the Werowanco preserved their dead as follows:
"... By him is commonly the sepulchre of their Kings. Their bodies are
first bowelled, then dried upon hurdles till they be very dry, and so
about the most of their joints and neck they hang bracelets, or chains
of copper, pearl, and such like, as they used to wear. Their inwards
they stuff with copper beads, hatchets, and such trash. Then lap they
them very carefully in white skins, and so roll them in mats for their
winding-sheets. And in the tomb, which is an arch made of mats, they
lay them orderly. What remaineth of this kind of wealth their Kings
have, they set at their feet in baskets. These temples and bodies are
kept by their priests.
"For their ordinary burials, they dig a deep hole in the earth with
sharp stakes, and the corpse being lapped in skins and mats with their
jewels they lay them upon sticks in the ground, and so cover them with
earth. The burial ended, the women being painted all their faces with
black coal and oil do sit twenty-four hours in the houses mourning and
lamenting by turns with such yelling and howling as may express their
great passions....
"Upon the top of certain red sandy hills in the woods there are three
great houses filled with images of their Kings and devils and tombs of
their predecessors. Those houses are near sixty feet in length, built
harbourwise after their building. This place they count so holy as
that but the priests and Kings dare come into them; nor the savages
dare not go up the river in boats by it, but they solemnly cast some
piece of copper, white beads, or pocones into the river for fear their
Okee should be offended and revenged of them.
"They think that their Werowances and priests which they also esteem
quiyoughcosughs, when they are dead do go beyond the mountains towards
the setting of the sun, and ever remain there in form of their Okee,
with their heads painted red with oil and pocones, finely trimmed with
feathers, and shall have beads, hatchets, copper, and tobacco, doing
nothing but dance and sing with all their predecessors. But the common
people they suppose shall not live after death, but rot in their
graves like dead dogs."
The remark regarding truthfulness will apply to this account in common
with the former.
The Congaree or Santee Indians of South Carolina, according to Lawson,
used a process of partial embalmment, as will be seen from the
subjoined extract from Schoolcraft; [Footnote: Hist. Indian Tribes of
the United States, 1854, Part IV, p. 155, _et seq_] but instead
of laying away the remains in caves, placed them in boxes supported
above the ground by crotched sticks.
"The manner of their interment is thus: A mole or pyramid of earth is
raised, the mould thereof being worked very smooth and even, sometimes
higher or lower, according to the dignity of the person whose monument
it is. On the top thereof is an umbrella, made ridgeways, like the
roof of a house. This is supported by nine stakes or small posts, the
grave being about 6 or 8 feet in length and 4 feet in breadth, about
which is hung gourds, feathers, and other such like trophies, placed
there by the dead man's relations in respect to him in the grave. The
other parts of the funeral rites are thus: As soon as the party is
dead they lay the corpse upon a piece of bark in the sun, seasoning or
embalming it with a small root beaten to powder, which looks as red as
vermilion; the same is mixed with bear's oil to beautify the hair.
After the carcass has laid a day or two in the sun they remove it and
lay it upon crotches cut on purpose for the support thereof from the
earth then they anoint it all over with the aforementioned ingredients
of the powder of this root and bear's oil. When it is so done they
cover it over very exactly with the bark of the pine or cypress tree
to prevent any rain to fall upon it, sweeping the ground very clean
all about it. Some of his nearest of kin brings all the temporal
estate he was possessed of at his death, as guns, bows and arrows,
beads, feathers, match coat etc. This relation is the chief mourner,
being clad in moss, with a stick in his hand, keeping a mournful ditty
for three or four days, his face being black with the smoke of pitch
pine mixed with bear's oil. All the while he tells the dead mans
relations and the rest of the spectators who that dead person was, and
of the great feats performed in his lifetime, all that he speaks
tending to the praise of the defunct. As soon as the flesh grows
mellow and will cleave from the bone they get it off and burn it,
making the bones very clean then anoint them with the ingredients
aforesaid, wrapping up the skull (very carefully) in a cloth
artificially woven of opossum's hair. The bones they carefully
preserve in a wooden box, every year oiling and cleansing them. By
these means they preserve them for many ages that you may see an
Indian in possession of the bones of his grandfather or some of his
relations of a longer antiquity. They have other sorts of tombs as
when an Indian is slain in, that very place they make a heap of stones
(or sticks where stones are not to be found), to this memorial every
Indian that passes by adds a stone to augment the heap in respect to
the deceased hero. The Indians make a roof of light wood or pitch pine
over the graves of the more distinguished, covering it with bark and
then with earth leaving the body thus in a subterranean vault until
the flesh quits the bones. The bones are then taken up, cleaned,
jointed, clad in white dressed deer skins, and laid away in the
_Quiogozon,_ which is the royal tomb or burial place of their
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.
"These recesses, though under ground, are yet dry enough to attract
and retain the nitrick acid. It combines with lime and potash, and
probably the earthy matter of these excavations contains a good
proportion of calcareous carbonate. Amidst these drying and
antiseptick ingredients, it may be conceived that putrefaction would
be stayed, and the solids preserved from decay. The outer envelope of
the body is a deer skin, probably dried in the usual way and perhaps
softened before its application by rubbing. The next covering is a
deer's skin, whose hair had been cut away by a sharp instrument
resembling a hatter's knife. The remnant of the hair and the gashes in
the skin nearly resemble a sheared pelt of beaver. The next wrapper is
of cloth made of twine doubled and twisted. But the thread does not
appear to have been formed by the wheel, nor the web by the loom. The
warp and filling seem to have been crossed and knotted by an operation
like that of the fabricks of the northwest coast, and of the Sandwich
islands. Such a botanist as the lamented Muhlenburgh could determine
the plant which furnished the fibrous material.
"The innermost tegument is a mantle of cloth like the preceding, but
furnished with large brown feathers arranged and fastened with great
art so as to be capable of guarding the living wearer from wet and
cold. The plumage is distinct and entire, and the whole bears a near
similitude to the feathery cloaks now worn by the nations of the
northwestern coast of America. A Wilson might tell from what bird they
were derived.
"The body is in a squatting posture with the right arm reclining
forward and its hand encircling the right leg. The left arm hangs
down, with its hand inclined partly under the seat. The individual,
who was a male did not probably exceed the age of fourteen, at his
death. There is near the occiput a deep and extensive fracture of the
skull, which probably killed him. The skin has sustained little
injury, it is of a dusky colour, but the natural hue cannot be decided
with exactness from its present appearance. The scalp, with small
exceptions is cohered with sorrel or foxy hair. The teeth are white
and sound. The hands and feet, in their shrivelled state, are slender
and delicate. All this is worthy the investigation of our acute and
perspicacious colleague, Dr Holmes.
"There is nothing bituminous or aromatic in or about the body, like the
Egyptian mummies, nor are there bandages around any part. Except the
several wrappers, the body is totally naked. There is no sign of a
suture or incision about the belly whence it seems that the viscera
were not removed.
"It may now be expected that I should offer some opinion, as to the
antiquity and race of this singular exsiccation.
"First, then, I am satisfied that it does not belong to that class of
white men of which we are members.
"2dly. Nor do I believe that it ought to be referred to the bands of
Spanish adventurers, who, between the years 1500 and 1600, rambled up
the Mississippi, and along its tributary streams. But on this head I
should like to know the opinion of my learned and sagacious friend,
Noah Webster.
"3dly. I am equally obliged to reject the opinion that it belonged to
any of the tribes of aborigines, now or lately inhabiting Kentucky.
"4thly. The mantle of the feathered work, and the mantle of twisted
threads, so nearly resemble the fabricks of the indigines of Wakash
and the Pacifick islands, that I refer this individual to that era of
time, and that generation of men, which preceded the Indians of the
Green River, and of the place where these relicks were found. This
conclusion is strengthened by the consideration that such manufactures
are not prepared by the actual and resident red men of the present
day. If the Abbe Clavigero had had this case before him, he would have
thought of the people who constructed those ancient forts and mounds,
whose exact history no man living can give. But I forbear to enlarge;
my intention being merely to manifest my respect to the society for
having enrolled me among its members, and to invite the attention of
its Antiquarians to further inquiry on a subject of such curiosity.
"With respect, I remain yours,
"SAMUEL L. MITCHILL"
It would appear from recent researches on the Northwest coast that the
natives of that region embalmed their dead with much care, as may be
seen from the work recently published by W. H. Dall, [Footnote: Cont.
to N. A. Ethnol., 1877, vol. 1, p. 89] the description of the mummies
being as follows:
"We found the dead disposed of in various ways; first, by interment in
their compartments of the communal dwelling, as already described;
second, by being laid on a rude platform of drift-wood or stones in
some convenient rock shelter. These lay on straw and moss, covered by
matting, and rarely have either implements, weapons, or carvings
associated with them. We found only three or four specimens in all in
these places, of which we examined a great number. This was apparently
the more ancient form of disposing of the dead, and one which more
recently was still pursued in the case of poor or unpopular
individuals.
"Lastly, in comparatively modern times, probably within a few
centuries, and up to the historic period (1740), another mode was
adopted for the wealthy, popular, or more distinguished class. The
bodies were eviscerated, cleansed from fatty matters in running water,
dried, and usually placed in suitable cases in wrappings of fur and
fine grass matting The body was usually doubled up into the smallest
compass, and the mummy case, especially in the case of children, was
usually suspended (so as not to touch the ground) in some convenient
rock shelter. Sometimes, however, the prepared body was placed in a
lifelike position, dressed and armed. They were placed as if engaged
in some congenial occupation, such as hunting, fishing, sewing, etc.
With them were also placed effigies of the animals they were pursuing,
while the hunter was dressed in his wooden armor and provided with an
enormous mask, all ornamented with feathers and a countless variety of
wooden pendants, colored in gay patterns. All the carvings were of
wood, the weapons even were only fac-similes in wood of the original
articles. Among the articles represented were drums, rattles, dishes,
weapons, effigies of men, birds, fish, and animals, wooden armor of
rods or scales of wood, and remarkable masks, so arranged that the
wearer when erect could only see the ground at his feet. These were
worn at their religious dances from an idea that a spirit which was
supposed to animate a temporary idol was fatal to whoever might look
upon it while so occupied. An extension of the same idea led to the
masking of those who had gone into the land of spirits.
"The practice of preserving the bodies of those belonging to the
whaling class--a custom peculiar to the Kadiak Innuit--has erroneously
been confounded with the one now described. The latter included women
as well as men, and all those whom the living desired particularly to
honor. The whalers, however, only preserved the bodies of males, and
they were not associated with the paraphernalia of those I have
described. Indeed, the observations I have been able to make show the
bodies of the whalers to have been preserved with stone weapons and
actual utensils instead of effigies, and with the meanest apparel, and
no carvings of consequence. These details, and those of many other
customs and usages of which the shell heaps bear no testimony ... do
not come within my line."
Martin Sauer, secretary to Billings' Expedition [Footnote: Billings'
Exped. 1802, p. 167.] in 1802, speaks of the Aleutian Islanders
embalming their dead, as follows:
"They pay respect, however, to the memory of the dead, for they embalm
the bodies of the men with dried moss and grass; bury them in their
best attire, in a sitting posture, in a strong box, with their darts
and instruments; and decorate the tomb with various coloured mats,
embroidery, and paintings. With women, indeed, they use less ceremony.
A mother will keep a dead child thus embalmed in their hut for some
months, constantly wiping it dry; and they bury it when it begins to
smell, or when they get reconciled to parting with it."
Regarding these same people, a writer in the San Francisco Bulletin
gives this account-
"The schooner William Sutton, belonging to the Alaska Commercial
Company, has arrived from the seal islands of the company with the
mummified remains of Indians who lived on an island north of Ounalaska
one hundred and fifty years ago. This contribution to science was
secured by Captain Henning, an agent of the company, who has long
resided at Ounalaska. In his transactions with the Indians he learned
that tradition among the Aleuts assigned Kagamale, the island in
question, as the last resting-place of a great chief, known as
Karkhayahouchak. Last year the captain was in the neighborhood of
Kagamale, in quest of sea-otter and other furs and he bore up for the
island, with the intention of testing the truth of the tradition he
had heard. He had more difficulty in entering the cave than in finding
it, his schooner having to beat on and off shore for three days.
Finally, he succeeded in effecting a landing, and clambering up the
rocks he found himself in the presence of the dead chief, his family
and relatives.
"The cave smelt strongly of hot sulphurous vapors. With great care the
mummies were removed, and all the little trinkets and ornaments
scattered around were also taken away.
"In all there are eleven packages of bodies. Only two or three have as
yet been opened. The body of the chief is inclosed in a large basket-
like structure, about four feet in height. Outside the wrappings are
finely-wrought sea-grass matting, exquisitely close in texture, and
skins. At the bottom is a broad hoop or basket of thinly-cut wood, and
adjoining the center portions are pieces of body armor composed of
reeds bound together. The body is covered with the fine skin of the
sea-otter, always a mark of distinction in the interments of the
Aleuts, and round the whole package are stretched the meshes of a
fish-net, made of the sinews of the sea lion; also those of a bird-
net. There are evidently some bulky articles inclosed with the chief's
body, and the whole package differs very much from the others, which
more resemble, in their brown-grass matting, consignments of crude
sugar from the Sandwich Islands than the remains of human beings. The
bodies of a pappoose and of a very little child, which probably died
at birth or soon after it, have sea-otter skins around them. One of
the feet of the latter projects, with a toe-nail visible. The
remaining mummies are of adults.
"One of the packages has been opened, and it reveals a man's body in
tolerable preservation, but with a large portion of the face
decomposed. This and the other bodies were doubled up at death by
severing some of the muscles at the hip and knee joints and bending
the limbs downward horizontally upon the trunk. Perhaps the most
peculiar package, next to that of the chief, is one which incloses in
a single matting, with sea-lion skins, the bodies of a man and woman.
The collection also embraces a couple of skulls, male and female,
which have still the hair attached to the scalp. The hair has changed
its color to a brownish red. The relics obtained with the bodies
include a few wooden vessels scooped out smoothly; a piece of dark,
greenish, flat stone, harder than the emerald, which the Indians use
to tan skins; a scalp-lock of jet-black hair; a small rude figure,
which may have been a very ugly doll or an idol; two or three tiny
carvings in ivory of the sea-lion, very neatly executed, a comb, a
necklet made of birds' claws inserted into one another, and several
specimens of little bags, and a cap plaited out of sea-grass and
almost water-tight."
With the foregoing examples as illustration, the matter of embalmment
may be for the present dismissed, with the advice to observers that
particular care should be taken, in case mummies are discovered, to
ascertain whether the bodies have been submitted to a regular
preservative process, or owe their protection to ingredients in the
soil of their graves or to desiccation in arid districts.