A Third Mode Was, When The Body, Bent Together, And Wrapped In
Birch-Rind, Was Enclosed In A Kind Of Box On The Ground.
The box was
made of small squared posts, laid on each other horizontally, and
notched at the corners, to make them meet close; it was about four
feet by three, and two and a-half feet deep, and well lined with
birch-rind, to exclude the weather from the inside.
The body lay on
its right side.
A fourth, and the most common mode of burying among these people, has
been, to wrap the body in birch-rind, and cover it over with a heap of
stones, on the surface of the earth, in some retired spot; sometimes
the body, thus wrapped up, is put a foot or two under the surface, and
the spot covered with stones; in one place, where the ground was sandy
and soft, they appeared to have been buried deeper, and no stones
placed over the graves.
These people appear to have always shewn great respect for their dead;
and the most remarkable remains of them commonly observed by
Europeans, at the sea-coast, are their burying-places. These are at
particular chosen spots; and it is well known that they have been in
the habit of bringing their dead from a distance to them. With their
women, they bury only their clothes.
On the north side of the lake, opposite the River Exploits, are the
extremities of two deer fences, about half a mile apart, where they
lead to the water. It is understood that they diverge many miles in
north-westerly directions. The Red Indians make these fences to lead
and scare the deer to the lake, during the periodical migration of
these animals; the Indians being stationed looking out, when the deer
get into the water to swim across, the lake being narrow at this end,
they attack and kill the animals with spears out of their canoes. In
this way they secure their winter provisions before the severity of
that season sets in.
There were other old remains of different kinds peculiar to these
people met with about the lake.
One night we encamped on the foundation of an old Red Indian wigwam,
on the extremity of a point of land which juts out into the lake, and
exposed to the view of the whole country around. A large fire at night
is the life and soul of such a party as ours, and when it blazed up at
times, I could not help observing, that two of my Indians evinced
uneasiness and want of confidence in things around, as if they thought
themselves usurpers on the Red Indian territory. From time immemorial
none of the Indians of the other tribes had ever encamped near this
lake fearlessly, and, as we had now done, in the very centre of such a
country; the lake and territory adjacent having been always considered
to belong exclusively to the Red Indians, and to have been occupied by
them.
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