frontier posts, and to individuals known to be interested in
ethnologic matters. A large number of interesting and valuable
responses were received, many of them showing how customs have changed
either under influences of civilization or altered circumstances of
environment.

Following this, a comprehensive list of books relating to North
American Indians was procured, and each volume subjected to careful
scrutiny, extracts being made from those that appeared in the writer's
judgment reliable. Out of a large number examined up to the present
time, several hundred have been laid under contribution, and the labor
of further collation still continues.

It is proper to add that all the material obtained will eventually be
embodied in a quarto volume, forming one of the series of
contributions to North American Ethnology prepared under the direction
of Maj. J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, Smithsonian
Institution, from whom, since the inception of the work, most constant
encouragement and advice has been received, and to whom all American
ethnologists owe a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid.

Having thus called attention to the work and the methods pursued in
collecting data, the classification of the subject may be given and
examples furnished of the burial ceremonies among different tribes,
calling especial attention to similar or almost analogous customs
among the peoples of the Old World.

For our present purpose the following provisional arrangement of
burials may be adopted: