USUAL POSITION OF THE BODY IN INDIAN SEPULTURE.
As an additional evidence of the unity of race and species in the American
nations, I shall now adduce the singular fact, that from Patagonia to Canada, and
from ocean to ocean, and equally in the civilised and uncivilised tribes, a peculiar
mode of placing the body in sepulture has been practised from immemorial time.
This peculiarity consists in the s ittin g posture, and will he best understood by
reference to the annexed drawing.
PLATE LXIX.
NATURAL MUMMY OF A MUYSCA INDIAN OF NEW GRENADA.
It will he observed in this instance that the body is in the sitting posture,
the legs being flexed against the abdomen, and the feet turned inwards. The
arms are also flexed so as to touch the chest, the chin being supported on the
palms of the hands, and the fingers received into the hollow beneath the cheek
bones. This interesting relic was brought from New Grenada, in South America,
by the late Charles Biddle, Esq., who presented it to the Academy of Natural
Sciences of this city, where it is now preserved. The body is not embalmed, but
only desiccated; yet the muscles are so well preserved as to render it probable
that some antiseptic fluid may have been applied to them.
Let us now trace this singular custom from south to north. The Moluches
and Pampas of Patagonia bury their dead in large square pits. | They are placed
in a row, s ittin g , with all the weapons and other things which belonged to the
dead.”—F alker’s P a ta g o n ia , quoted in Appendix to Molina.—Dobrizhoffer also
observes that the equestrian tribes of that country “ compose the corpse in such
manner that the knees touch the face.”—Hist. Abipones, I, p. 132.
The Indians of Chili had the same custom, but they exposed their dead on a
stage above ground.—F o r ster , Obs. D u r in g a Voy. P o u n d the World, p. 564.
The Coroados of Brazil place the body in a sitting posture in a large pot,
which is buried in the ground amidst cries and lamentation.—Spix and Martius,
Trav. in B ra z il, II, p. 250.
Morton’s Crania Americana
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