ystanders to carry them home; the men will also come and mourn
in the same manner, but in the night or at other unseasonable times
when they are least likely to be discovered.

The stage is fenced round with poles; it remains thus a certain
time, but not a fixed space; this is sometimes extended to three or
four months, but seldom more than half that time. A certain set of
venerable old Gentlemen, who wear very long nails as a
distinguishing badge on the thumb, fore, and middle finger of each
hand, constantly travel through the nation (when I was there I was
told there were but five of this respectable order) that one of them
may acquaint those concerned, of the expiration of this period,
which is according to their own fancy; the day being come, the
friends and relations assemble near the stage, a fire is made, and
the respectable operator, after the body is taken down, with his
nails tears the remaining flesh off the bones, and throws it with
the entrails into the fire, where it is consumed; then he scrapes
the bones and burns the scrapings likewise; the head being painted
red with vermillion is with the rest of the bones put into a neatly
made chest (which for a Chief is also made red) and deposited in the
loft of a hut built for that purpose, and called bone house; each
town has one of these; after remaining here one year or thereabouts,
if he be a man of any note, they take the chest down, and in an
assembly of relations and friends they weep once more over him,
refresh the colour of the head, paint the box, and then deposit him
to lasting oblivion.

An enemy and one who commits suicide is buried under the earth as
one to be directly forgotten and unworthy the above ceremonial
obsequies and mourning.

Jones[74] quotes one of the older writers, as follows, regarding the
Natchez tribe:

Among the Natchez the dead were either inhumed or placed in tombs.
These tombs were located within or very near their temples. They
rested upon four forked sticks fixed fast in the ground, and were
raised some three feet above the earth. About eight feet long and a
foot and a half wide, they were prepared for the reception of a
single corpse. After the body was placed upon it, a basket-work of
twigs was woven around and covered with mud, an opening being left
at the head, through which food was presented to the deceased. When
the flesh had all rotted away, th