The account by Breboeuf of the communal burial among the Hurons
heretofore referred to is well known. [Footnote: Jesuit Relations
for 1636. Transl. in Fifth Ann. Rept. Bur. Ethnol., p. 110.] The
same custom is alluded to by Lafitau. [Footnote: Moeurs des
Sauvages, vol. 2, pp. 420-435.] Bartram observed it among the
Choctaws. [Footnote: Travels, p. 516.] It is also mentioned by
Bossu, [Footnote: Travels through Louisiana, p. 298.] by
Adair,[Footnote: Hist. Am. Indians, p. 183.] by Barnard
Romans,[Footnote: Nat. Hist. Florida, p. 90.] and others.

Burial beneath or in dwellings.--The evidence brought to light by
the investigations of the Bureau of Ethnology, regarding a custom
among the mound-builders of Arkansas and Mississippi, of burying
in or under their dwellings, has been given, in part, in an
article published in the Magazine of American History. [Footnote:
February, 1884.] It is a well-attested historical fact that such
was also the custom of the southern Indian tribes. Bartram affirms
it to have been in vogue among the Muscogulgees or
Creeks,[Footnote: Travels, p. 505.] and Barnard Romans says it was
also practiced by the Chickasaws.[Footnote: Nat. Hist. Florida, p.
71] C C. Jones says that the Indians of Georgia "often interred
beneath the floor of the cabin, and then burnt the hut of the
deceased over his head;"[Footnote: Antiq. So. Indians, p. 203.]
which furnishes a complete explanation of the fact observed by the
Bureau explorers, mentioned in the article before alluded to.

Burial in a sitting or squatting posture.--It was a very common
practice among the mound-builders to bury their dead in a sitting
or squatting posture. The examples of this kind are too numerous
and too well known to require repetition. I may add that the yet