Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United States

by Cyrus Thomas

About 5 or 6 o'clock they lined (pauerent) the bottom of the grave and bordered it with large new robes, the skins of ten beavers, in such a way that these extend more than a foot out of it. As they were preparing the robes which were to be used for this purpose, some of them descended into the grave, and came from it with their hands full of sand. I inquired what this ceremony meant, and learned that they believed that this sand will render them happy at their games (au ieu).

Of the twelve hundred offerings that had been exhibited on the platform, forty-eight robes were to line and trim the grave, and each complete body had, besides the robe in which it was wrapped, another one, and some even two others, to cover it. This is all: so that I do not think [? but] that each body had one to itself, taking one with another, which is the least that it could have for its burial; for these robes of beaver skin are what the clothes and shrouds are in France. But what becomes then of the rest? We will see presently.

At 7 o'clock the bodies were lowered into the grave. We had great difficulty in approaching it. Nothing ever pictured better to me the confusion among the damned. You could see unloaded on all sides bodies half decayed, and everywhere was heard a terrible uproar of confused voices of persons who were speaking without hearing one another; ten or twelve men were in the grave and were arranging the bodies all around it, one after the other. They placed, exactly in the center, three large kettles, which were of no use save for the spirits; one was pierced with holes, another had no handle, and the third was worth little more. I saw a few necklaces of shell beads there; it is true, many of them were put on the body. This was all that was done on this day.

The whole company passed the night on the spot, having lit a great many fires and boiled kettles. We retired to the old village with the intention of returning the next day at daylight when they were to cast the bones into the grave; but we barely arrived in time, notwithstanding all the diligence we employed, on account of an accident which happened. One of the skeletons, which was not well fastened, or perhaps was too heavy for the cord which held it, fell of itself into the grave. The noise it made awoke the whole troupe, who ran and immediately mounted, in a crowd, to the platform and emptied, without order, all the bundles into the grave, reserving, however, the robes in which they had been wrapped. We were just leaving the village at that time, but the noise was so great that it seemed almost as though we were there. Approaching we saw suddenly an image of the infernal regions. This great space was filled with fire and smoke and the air resounded on all sides with the mingled voices of the savages. This noise, nevertheless, ceased for a while, and was changed to singing, but in a tone so doleful and weird that it represented to us the terrible sadness and the depth of despair in which condemned souls are forever plunged.

Nearly all the bones had been cast in when we arrived, for it was done almost in a moment, each one being in haste for fear that there was not room for all these skeletons; nevertheless we saw enough of it to judge of the rest. There were five or six men in the grave, with poles, to arrange the bones. It was filled up within 2 feet of the top with bones, after which they turned over upon them the robes that bordered the grave all around, and covered the whole with mats and bark. The pit was then filled up with sand, rods, and stakes of wood which were thrown in promiscuously. Some of the women brought dishes of corn, and on the same day and the following days several cabins of the village furnished basketfuls of it, which were cast into the pit.

We have fifteen or twenty Christians buried with these infidels. We say a De profundis for their souls, with the firm hope that if the Divine goodness does not cease His blessings on His people this feast will be made no more, or will be only for Christians, and will be celebrated with rites as holy as these are foolish and useless. They also begin to be a burden upon the people for the excess and superfluous expenses that are caused by them.

All the morning was spent in distributing gifts (largesses), and most of the robes that had been wrapped around the bodies were cut in pieces and thrown from the top of the platform into the midst of the crowd for whoever could seize them first. There was great sport when two or three contested the possession of one beaver skin. In order to settle it peaceably it was necessary to cut it into so many pieces, and thus they came out nearly empty-handed, for these tatters were hardly worth the picking up. I admired here the industry of one savage. He did not hurry himself to run after these flying pieces; but, as there is nothing so valuable this year in the country as tobacco (petun), he held some pieces of it in his hand, which he presented at once to those who were disputing over the skin, and thus acquired it for himself.

Before leaving the place we learned that, on the evening when presents had been given to the foreign nations, on the part of the master of the feast, we also had been named; and, in fact, as we were going, Anenkhiondic came and presented a new robe composed of ten beaver skins, in return for the necklace which I had given them in the midst of the council to show them the heavenly way. They were so much obliged for this present that they wished to show some acknowledgment of it in so good an assembly. I would not accept it, however, saying to him that, as we had made them this present only to persuade them to embrace our faith, they could not oblige us more than in listening to us willingly and believing in Him who rules over all. He asked what I desired that he should do with the robe. I replied that he could dispose of it in whatever way he deemed best, with which he remained perfectly satisfied. Of the rest of the twelve hundred presents forty-eight robes were used to adorn the grave. Each body wore its robe and some of them two or three. Twenty were given to the master of the feast, to reward the nations who had assisted at it. A number were distributed on the part of the dead, through the captains, to their living friends. A part of them were only used for show, and were returned to those who had exhibited them. The old people (anciens), and great leaders of the country, who had the administration and management of it, privately took a great deal, and the rest were cut in pieces, as I have said, and scattered through the assembly. However, it was only the rich who lost nothing, or very little, at this feast. The mendicants and poor people brought and left there all they possessed of any value, and suffered much by striving to appear as well as others in this celebration. Every one stood upon this point of honor.

Indeed, it was only by a chance that we were not also participants of the feast. During this winter the Captain Aenons, of whom I have spoken before, came to make us a proposal on the part of all the anciens of the country. At that time the boiling of the kettle (chaudiere) was not yet divided. They proposed to us then that we should consent to exhume the remains of the two Frenchmen who had died in this country, to wit, Guillaume Chaudron and Estienne Bruslé, who was killed four years ago, and that their bones might be placed in the common grave of their dead. We replied at first that this could not be done; that it was forbidden; that as they had been baptized, and were, as we hoped, in heaven, we respected their bones too highly to allow them to be mixed with the bones of those who had not been baptized. Besides, it was not our custom to exhume the bodies of those who had been buried.

We decided, however, after all, that as they were interred in the wood and since the people desired it so much, we would consent to take up their bones on the condition that they allowed us to put them in a particular grave, with the bones of all that we had baptized in the country.