k. The reason
of this was that, as his favorite Manitou was the eagle, his spirit
would be enabled more easily from such a situation to fly with him
to Paradise.

Hind[97] mentions an account of a burial feast by De Brebeuf which
occurred among the Hurons of New York:

The Jesuit missionary, P. de Brebeuf, who assisted at one of the
"feasts of the dead" at the village of Ossosane, before the
dispersion of the Hurons, relates that the ceremony took place in
the presence of 2,000 Indians, who offered 1,300 presents at the
common tomb, in testimony of their grief. The people belonging to
five large villages deposited the bones of their dead in a gigantic
shroud, composed of forty-eight robes, each robe being made of ten
beaver skins. After being carefully wrapped in this shroud, they
were placed between moss and bark. A wall of stones was built around
this vast ossuary to preserve it from profanation. Before covering
the bones with earth a few grains of Indian corn were thrown by the
women upon the sacred relics. According to the superstitious belief
of the Hurons the souls of the dead remain near the bodies until the
"feast of the dead"; after which ceremony they become free, and can
at once depart for the land of spirits, which they believe to be
situated in the regions of the setting sun.

Ossuaries have not been used by savage nations alone, for the custom of
exhuming the bones of the dead after a certain period, and collecting
them in suitable receptacles, is well known to have been practiced in
Italy, Switzerland, and France. The writer saw in the church-yard of
Zug, Switzerland, in 1857, a slatted pen containing the remains of
hundreds of individuals. These had been dug up from the grave-yard and
preserved in the manner indicated. The catacombs of Naples and Paris
afford examples of burial ossuaries.

_SUPERSTITION REGARDING BURIAL FEASTS._

The following account is by Dr. S. G. Wright, acting physician to the
Leech Lake Agency, Minnesota:--

Pagan Indians or those who have not become Christians still adhere
to the ancient practice of feasting at the grave of departed
friends; the object is to feast with the departed; that is, they
believe that while they partake of the visible material the departed
spirit partakes at the same time of the spirit that dwells in the
food. From ancient time it was customary to bury with the dead
various articles, such especi