of
men and other animals. On entering we found in some of them four
dead bodies, carefully wrapped in skins, tied with cords of grass
and bark, lying on a mat in a direction east and west; the other
vaults contained only bones, which in some of them were piled to a
height of 4 feet; on the tops of the vaults and on poles attached to
them hung brass kettles and frying-pans with holes in their bottoms,
baskets, bowls, sea-shells, skins, pieces of cloth, hair bags of
trinkets, and small bones, the offerings of friendship or affection,
which have been saved by a pious veneration from the ferocity of war
or the more dangerous temptation of individual gain. The whole of
the walls as well as the door were decorated with strange figures
cut and painted on them, and besides these were several wooden
images of men, some of them so old and decayed as to have almost
lost their shape, which were all placed against the sides of the
vault. These images, as well as those in the houses we have lately
seen, do not appear to be at all the objects of adoration in this
place; they were most probably intended as resemblances of those
whose decease they indicate, and when we observe them in houses they
occupy the most conspicuous part, but are treated more like
ornaments than objects of worship. Near the vaults which are still
standing are the remains of others on the ground, completely rotted
and covered with moss; and as they are formed of the most durable
pine and cedar timber, there is every appearance that for a very
long series of years this retired spot has been the depository for
the Indians near this place."

Another depository of this kind upon an island in the river a few
miles above gave it the name of Sepulcher Inland. The _Watlala_, a
tribe of the Upper Tsinuk, whose burial place is here described, are
now nearly extinct; but a number of the sepulchers still remain in
different states of preservation. The position of the body, as
noticed by Clarke, is, I believe, of universal observance, the head
being always placed to the west. The reason assigned to me is that
the road to the _me-mel-us-illa-hee_, the country of the dead, is
toward the west, and if they place them otherwise they would be
confused. East of the Cascade Mountains the tribes whose habits are
equestrian, and who use canoes only for ferriage or transportation
purposes, bury their dead, usual