of Bellingham Bay, according to Dr. J. F. Hammond, U. S. A., place
their dead in carved wooden sarcophagi, inclosing these with a
rectangular tent of some white material.

Bancroft [Footnote: Nat. Races of Pac. States, 1874, vol. 1, p. 780.]
states that certain of the Indians of Costa Rica, when a death
occurred, deposited the body in a small hut constructed of plaited
palm reeds. In this it is preserved for three years, food being
supplied, and on each anniversary of the death it is redressed and
attended to amid certain ceremonies. The writer has been recently
informed that a similar custom prevailed in Demerara. No authentic
accounts are known of analogous modes of burial among the peoples of
the Old World, although quite frequently the dead were interred
beneath the floors of their houses, a custom which has been followed
by the Mosquito Indians of Central America and one or two of our own
tribes.



BOX BURIAL.


Under this head may be placed those examples furnished by certain
tribes on the Northwest coast who used as receptacles for the dead
wonderfully carved, large wooden chests, these being supported upon a
low platform or resting on the ground. In shape they resemble a small
house with an angular roof, and each one has an opening through which
food may be passed to the corpse.

Some of the tribes formerly living in New York used boxes much