body in small pieces and collecting in a pot.



CREMATION.


Next should be noted this mode of disposing of the dead, a common
custom to a considerable extent among North American tribes,
especially those living on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains,
although we have undoubted evidence that it was also practiced among
the more eastern ones. This rite may be considered as peculiarly
interesting from its great antiquity, for Tegg informs us that it
reached as far back as the Theban war, in the account of which mention
is made of the burning of Menoaeus and Archemorus, who were
contemporary with Jair, eighth judge of Israel. It was common in the
interior of Asia and among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and has also
prevailed among the Hindoos up to the present time. In fact, it is now
rapidly becoming a custom among civilized people.

While there is a certain degree of similarity between the performance
of this rite among the peoples spoken of and the Indians of North
America, yet, did space admit, a discussion might profitably be
entered upon regarding the details of it among the ancients and the
origin of the ceremony. As it is, simple narrations of cremation in
this country, with discursive notes and an account of its origin among
the Nishinams of California, by Stephen Powers, [Footnote: Cont. to N.
A. Ethnol., 1877, vol. iii, p. 341] seem to be all that is required at
this time.