As a confirmed rite or ceremony, this mode of disposing of the dead
has never been followed by any of our North American Indians, although
occasionally the dead have been disposed of by sinking in springs or
watercourses, by throwing into the sea, or by setting afloat in
canoes. Among the nations of antiquity the practice was not uncommon,
for we are informed that the Ichtliyophagi, or fish-eaters, mentioned
by Ptolemy, living in a region bordering on the Persian Gulf,
invariably committed their dead to the sea, thus repaying the
obligations they had incurred to its inhabitants. The Lotophagians did
the same, and the Hyperboreans, with a commendable degree of
forethought for the survivors, when ill or about to die, threw
themselves into the sea. The burial of Baldor "the beautiful," it may
be remembered, was in a highly decorated ship, which was pushed down
to the sea, set on fire, and committed to the waves. The Itzas of
Guatemala, living on the islands of Lake Peter, according to Bancroft,
are said to have thrown their dead into the lake for want of room. The
Indiana of Nootka Sound and the Chinooks were in the habit of thus
getting rid of their dead slaves, and, according to Timberlake, the
Cherokees of Tennessee "seldom bury the dead, but threw them into the
river."
After a careful search for well-authenticated instances of burial,
aquatic and semi-aquatic, but two have been found, which are here
given. The first relates to the Gosh-Utes, and is by Capt J. H.
Simpson: [Footnote: Exploration Great Salt Lake Valley, Utah, 1859, p.
48.]
"Skull Valley, which is a part of the Great Salt Lake Desert, and
which we have crossed to-day, Mr. George W. Bean, my guide over this
route last fall, says derives its name from the number of skulls which
have been found in it, and which have arisen from the custom of the
Goshute Indians burying their dead in springs, which they sink with
stones or keep down with sticks. He says he has actually seen the
Indians bury their dead in this way near the town of Provo, where he
resides."
As corroboration of this statement, Captain Simpson mentions in
another part of the volume that, arriving at a spring one evening,
they were obliged to dig out the skeleton of an Indian from the mud at
the bottom before using the water.
This peculiar mode of burial is entirely unique, so far as known, and
but from the well-known probity of the relator might well be
questioned, especially when it is remembered that in the country
spoken of water is quite scarce and Indians are careful not to pollute
the streams or springs near which they live. Conjecture seems useless
to establish a reason for this disposition of the dead.
The second example is by Catlin [Footnote: Hist. North American
Indians, 1844, II, p. 141] and relates to the Chinook.
"... This little cradle has a strap which passes over the woman's
forehead whilst the cradle rides on her back, and if the child dies
during its subjection to this rigid mode its cradle becomes its
coffin, forming a little canoe, in which it lie floating on the water
in some sacred pool, where they are often in the habit of fastening
their canoes containing the dead bodies of the old and young, or,
which is often the case, elevated into the branches of trees, where
their bodies are left to decay and their bones to dry whilst they are
bandaged in man skins and ominously packed in their canoes, with
paddles to propel and ladles to bail them out, and provisions to last
and pipes to smoke as they are performing their 'long journey after
death to their contemplated hunting grounds,' which these people think
is to be performed in their canoes."