la Hist. del Orinoco I., pp. 199, 202, 204). When the quantity
of these heirlooms became burdensome they were removed to some
inaccessible cavern and stowed away with reverential care.

George Catlin[79] describes what he calls the "Golgothas" of the
Mandans:

There are several of these golgothas, or circles of twenty or thirty
feet in diameter, and in the center of each ring or circle is a
little mound of three feet high, on which uniformly rest two buffalo
skulls (a male and female), and in the center of the little mound is
erected "a medicine pole," of about twenty feet high, supporting
many curious articles of mystery and superstition, which they
suppose have the power of guarding and protecting this sacred
arrangement.

Here, then, to this strange place do these people again resort to
evince their further affections for the dead, not in groans and
lamentations, however, for several years have cured the anguish, but
fond affection and endearments are here renewed, and conversations
are here held and cherished with the dead. Each one of these skulls
is placed upon a bunch of wild sage, which has been pulled and
placed under it. The wife knows, by some mark or resemblance, the
skull of her husband or her child which lies in this group, and
there seldom passes a day that she does not visit it with a dish of
the best-cooked food that her wigwam affords, which she sets before
the skull at night, and returns for the dish in the morning. As soon
as it is discovered that the sage on which the skull rests is
beginning to decay, the woman cuts a fresh bunch and places the
skull carefully upon it, removing that which was under it.

Independent of the above-named duties, which draw the women to this
spot, they visit it from inclination, and linger upon it to hold
converse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour in a
pleasant day but more or less of these women may be seen sitting or
lying by the skull of their child or husband, talking to it in the
most pleasant and endearing language that they can use (as they were
wont to do in former days), and seemingly getting an answer back.

[Illustration: FIG. 23.--Canoe Burial.]

From these accounts it may be seen that the peculiar customs which have
been described by the authors cited were not confined to any special
tribe or area of country, although they do not appear to have prevailed
among the In