Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/195

 ffieir manner of embalming. 1 83:

were buried in the domeftic tombs of their kindred, without being adopted,, it would be very criminal in them to allow it, and that our fpirits would haunt the eaves of their houfes at night, and caufe feveral misfortunes to their family.

In refemblance to the Hebrew cuftom of embalming their dead, the Chok> tah treat the corpfe juft as the religious Levite did his beloved concubine, who was abufed by the Benjamites ; for" having placed the dead on a high fcaffbld flockaded round, at the diftance of twelve yards from his houfe oppofite to the door, the whole family convene there at the beginning of the fourth moon after the interment, to lament and feail together : after wailing a while on the mourning benches, which ftand on the eaft fide of the quadrangular tomb, they raife and bring out the corpfe, and while thefeaft is getting ready, a perfon whofe office it is, and properly called the lone --picker, dHTecls it, as if it was intended for the ihambles in the time of a great fa mine, with his fharp-pointed, bloody knife. He continues bufily employed in his reputed iacred office, till he has finimed the talk, and fcraped all the flefh off the bones ; which may juftly be called the Choktah method of enbalming their dead. Then, they carefully place the bones in a kind of fmall chefl, in their natural order, that they may with eafe and certainty be fome time afterward reunited, and proceed to ftrike up a fong of lamen tation, with various wailing tunes and notes : afterwards, they join as cheer fully in the funeral feafl, as if their kinfman was only taking his ufual fleep. Having regaled themfelves with a plentiful variety, they go along with thofe beloved relicks of their dead, in folemn procefllon, lamenting with doleful notes, till they arrive at the bone-houfe, which ftands in a folitary place, apart from the town: then they proceed around it, much after the manner of thofe who performed the oblequies of the Chikka- fah chieftain, already defcribed, and there depofit their kinfman's bones to lie along fide of his kindred-bones, till in due time they are revived by IJhtohootto Aba, that he may repoffefs his favourite place.

Thofe bone-houfes are fcaffolds raifed on durable pitch-pine forked pofts,

in the form of a houfe covered a-top, but. open at both ends. I favv

three of them* in one of their towns, pretty near each other the place

feemed to be unfrequented j each houfe contained the bones of one tribe,

3 feparatelyy

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