damnez. Vous eussiez veu decharger de tous costez des corps a demy
pourris, et de tous costez on entendoit vn horrible tintamarre de voix
confuses de personnes qui parloient et ne s'entendoient pas."--Brebeuf,
Relation des Hurons, 1636, 135. ]

[ 3 "Approchans, nous vismes tout a fait une image de l'Enfer: cette
grande place estoit toute remplie de feux & de flammes, & l'air
retentissoit de toutes parts des voix confuses de ces Barbares,"
etc.--Brebeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 209 (Cramoisy). ]

[ 4 "Se mirent a chanter, mais d'un ton si lamentable & si lugubre,
qu'il nous representoit l'horrible tristesse & l'abysme du desespoir dans
lequel sont plongees pour iamais ces ames malheureuses."--Ibid., 210.

For other descriptions of these rites, see Charlevoix, Bressani, Du Creux,
and especially Lafitau, in whose work they are illustrated with
engravings. In one form or another, they were widely prevalent. Bartram
found them among the Floridian tribes. Traces of a similar practice have
been observed in recent times among the Dacotahs. Remains of places of
sepulture, evidently of kindred origin, have been found in Tennessee,
Missouri, Kentucky, and Ohio. Many have been discovered in several parts
of New York, especially near the River Niagara. (See Squier, Aboriginal
Monuments of New York.) This was the eastern extremity of the ancient
territory of the Neuters. One of these deposits is said to have
contained the bones of several thousand individuals. There is a large
mound on Tonawanda Island, said by the modern Senecas to be a Neuter
burial-place. (See Marshall, Historical Sketches of the Niagara Frontier,
8.) In Canada West, they are found throughout the region once occupied
by the Neuters, and are frequent in the Huron district.