FUNERAL GAMES.--ENCAMPMENT OF THE MOURNERS.--GIFTS.--HARANGUES.--
FRENZY OF THE CROWD.--THE CLOSING SCENE.--ANOTHER RITE.--
THE CAPTIVE IROQUOIS.--THE SACRIFICE.


Mention has been made of those great depositories of human bones found at
the present day in the ancient country of the Hurons. [ See
Introduction. ] They have been a theme of abundant speculation; [ 1 ]
yet their origin is a subject, not of conjecture, but of historic
certainty. The peculiar rites to which they owe their existence were
first described at length by Brebeuf, who, in the summer of the year 1636,
saw them at the town of Ossossane.

[ 1 Among those who have wondered and speculated over these remains is
Mr. Schoolcraft. A slight acquaintance with the early writers would have
solved his doubts. ]

The Jesuits had long been familiar with the ordinary rites of sepulture
among the Hurons; the corpse placed in a crouching posture in the midst
of the circle of friends and relatives; the long, measured wail of the
mourners; the speeches in praise of the dead, and consolation to the
living; the funeral feast; the gifts at the place of burial; the funeral
games, where the young men of the village contended for prizes; and the
long period of mourning to those next of kin. The body was usually laid
on a scaffold, or, more rarely, in the earth. This, however, was not its
final resting-place. At intervals of ten or twelve years, each of the
four nations which composed the Huron Confederacy gathered together its
dead, and conveyed them all to a common place of sepulture. Here was
celebrated the great "Feast of the Dead,"--in the eyes of the Hurons,
their most solemn and important ceremonial.