siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL LIFE 173
The custom of wailing over the dead is mentioned by nearly all
early writers. Chiefs assembled to mourn at the tomb of one of their
number, as is noted in some of the early documents.
The following account is by William Bartram
The Choctaws pay their last duties and respect to the deceased in a very
different manner [from the Creelss]. As soon as a person is dead, they erect
a scaffold eighteen or twenty feet high, in a grove adjacent to the town, where
they lay the corpse, lightly covered with a mantle : here it Is suffered to remain,
visited and protected by the friends and relations, until the flesh becomes
putrid, so as easily to part ; then undertakers, who make it their business,
carefully strip the flesh from the bones, wash and cleanse them, and when
dry and purified by the air, having provided a curiously wrought chest or
coflin, fabricated of bones and splints, they place all the bones therein ; it is
then deposited in the bone-house, a building erected for that purpose in every
town. And when this house is full, a general solemn funeral takes place;
the nearest kindred or friends of the deceased, on a day appointed, repair to
the bone-house, take up the respective coflins, and following one another in
order of superiority, the nearest relations and connexions attending their
respective corpse, and the multitude following after them, all as one family,
with united voice of alternate Allelujah and lamentation, slowly proceed to
the place of general interment, where they place the coffins in order, forming
a pyramid " ; and lastly, cover all over with earth, which raises a conical hill
or mount. Then they return to town in order of solemn procession, concluding
the day with a festival, which is called the feast of the dead.^
Romans is much more detailed
As soon as the deceased is departed, a stage is erected . . . and the corpse
is laid on it and covered with a bear skin ; if he be a man of note, it is deco-
rated, and the poles painted red with vermillion and bears oil ; if a child, it is
put upon stakes set across ; at this stage the relations come and weep, asking
many questions of the corpse, such as, why he left them? did not his wife serve
him well? was he not contented with his children? had he not corn enough?
did not his land produce sufiicient of everything? was he afraid of his enemies?
&c. and this accompanied by loud bowlings ; the women will be there constantly,
and sometimes with the corrupted air and heat of the sun faint so as to
oblige the by standers to carry them home; the men will also come and mourn
in the same manner, but in the night or at other unseasonable times, when
they are least likely to be discovered.
The stage is fenced round with poles, it remains thus a certain time but not
a fixed space, this is sometimes extended to three or four months, but seldom
more than half that time. A certain set of venerable old Gentlemen who wear
very long nails as a distinguishing badge on the thumb, fore and middle finger
of each hand, constantly travel through the nation (when I was there, I was
told there were but five of this respectable order) that one of them may
acquaint those concerned, of the expiration of this period, which is according
to their own fancy ; the day being come, the friends and relations assemble near
'' Some ingenious men, whom I have conversed with, have given It as their opinion,
that all those pyramidal artificial hills, usually called Indian mounds, wore raised on
these occasions, and are generally sepulchres. However, I am of a different opinion.—
Bartram.
^ Bartram, Travels, pp. 514-515, 1792,