rsian 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 Balder "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 Peten, according to
Bancroft, are said to have thrown their dead into the lake for want of
room. The Indians 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 throw them into the
river."

The Alibamans, as they were called by Bossu, denied the rite of
sepulture to suicides; they were looked upon as cowards, and their
bodies thrown into a river. The Rev. J. G. Wood[82] states that the
Obongo or African tribe takes the body to some running stream, the
course of which has been previously diverted. A deep grave is dug in the
bed of the stream, the body placed in it, and covered over carefully.
Lastly, the stream is restored to its original course, so that all
traces of the grave are soon lost.

The Kavague also bury their common people, or wanjambo, by simply
sinking the body in some stream.

Historians inform us that Alaric was buried in a manner similar to that
employed by the Obongo, for in 410, at Cosenca, a town of Calabria, the
Goths turned aside the course of the river Vasento, and having made a
grave in the midst of its bed, where its course was most rapid, they
interred their king with a prodigious amount of wealth and riches. They
then caused the river to resume its regular course, and destroyed all
persons who had been concerned in preparing this romantic grave.

A later example of water-burial is that afforded by the funeral of De
Soto. Dying in 1542, his remains were inclosed in a wooden chest well
weighted, and committed to the turbid and tumultuous waters of the
Mississippi.

After a careful search for well-authenticated instances of burial,
aquatic and semi-aquatic, among North American Indians, but two have
been found, which are here given. The first relates to the Gosh-Utes,
and is by Capt. J. H. Simpson:[83]

Skull Valley, which is a part of the Great Salt Lake Deser