ances which have led
some to believe that the Indians possessed a knowledge of Masonry.

_BURIAL BENEATH, OR IN CABINS, WIGWAMS, OR HOUSES._

While there is a certain degree of similitude between the above-noted
methods and the one to be mentioned subsequently--_lodge_ burial--they
differ, inasmuch as the latter are examples of surface or aerial burial,
and must consequently fall under another caption. The narratives which
are now to be given afford a clear idea of the former kinds of burial.

Bartram[23] relates the following regarding the Muscogulges of the
Carolinas:

The Muscogulges bury their deceased in the earth; they dig a
four-foot, square, deep pit under the cabin, or couch which the
deceased laid on in his house, lining the grave with cypress bark,
when they place the corpse in a sitting posture, as if it were
alive, depositing with him his gun, tomahawk, pipe, and such other
matters as he had the greatest value for in his lifetime. His oldest
wife, or the queen dowager, has the second choice of his
possessions, and the remaining effects are divided among his other
wives and children.

According to Bernard Roman,[24] the "funeral customs of the Chickasaws
did not differ materially from those of the Muscogulges. They interred
the dead as soon as the breath left the body, and beneath the couch in
which the deceased expired."

The Navajos of New Mexico and Arizona, a tribe living a considerable
distance from the Chickasaws, follow somewhat similar customs, as
related by Dr. John Menard, formerly a physician to their agency:

The Navajo custom is to leave the body where it dies, closing up the
house or hogan or covering the body with stones or brush. In case
the body is removed, it is taken to a cleft in the rocks and thrown
in, and stones piled over. The person touching or carrying the body
first takes off all his clothes and afterwards washes his body with
water before putting them on or mingling with the living. When a
body is removed from a house or hogan, the hogan is burned down, and
the place in every case abandoned, as the belief is that the devil
comes to the place of death and remains where a dead body is. Wild
animals frequently (indeed, generally) get the bodies, and it is a
very easy matter to pick up skulls and bones around old camping
grounds, or where the dead are laid. In case it is not desirable to
abandon a place, the sick person is left out