They were not uncivilized, savage people, but highly spiritual, with a strong sense of family and community. The way in which they buried their dead and mourned their losses, would rival that of ancient Egypt. They may not have had the gold and precious gems so coveted by the Egyptians and other "civilized" nations, but gave what they had to ensure that their loved ones were handled with the utmost resepct when they passed to the land of the dead spirits.
In 1836, John MacGregor wrote an article on the Boeothic people, with the desire to make others aware of their culture. He had met both of the young women captives, and realized that they were not beasts. He describes a gravesite that he found during his travels:
" Their wooden repositories for the dead are in the most perfect state of preservation. These are of different constructions, it would appear, according to the rank of the persons entombed. In one of them, which resembled a hut, ten feet high, and in length and breadth nine to ten. In the centre, at the height of five feet, it was floored with square poles, -the roof was covered with the rinds of trees, and in every way it was well secured against the weather and the intrusion of wild beasts. The bodies of two full-grown persons were laid
out at length on the floor, and wrapped round with deerskins. One of these bodies appeared to have been entombed not longer than five or six years. We thought there were children also laid in here. On first opening this building, by removing the posts which formed the ends, our curiosity was raised to the highest pitch; but what added to our surprise was the discovery of a white deal coffin, containing a skeleton neatly shrouded in
white muslin. After a long pause of conjecture how such could have been here entombed, the idea of
Mary March occurred to one of the party, and the whole mystery was at once explained.
" In this cemetery were deposited a variety of articles, in some instances the property, in others the representations of the property and utensils, and of the achievements of the deceased. There were two small wooden images of a man and woman, no doubt meant to represent husband and wife; a small doll, which we supposed to represent a child (for Mary March had to leave her only child behind, which died after she was taken); several small models of their canoes, two small models of boats, an iron axe, a bow, and quiver of
arrows, were placed by the side of Mary March's husband, and two firestones (radiated iron pyrites, from which they produce fire, by striking them together) lay at his head; there were also various kinds of culinary utensils, neatly made of birch rind, and ornamented; and many other things, of some of which we did not know the use or meaning.
" Another mode of sepulture which we saw here was, when the body of the deceased had been wrapped in birch rind, it was, with his property, placed on a sort of scaffold about four feet and a half from the ground. The scaffold was formed of four posts, about seven feet high, fixed perpendicularly in the ground to sustain a kind of crib, five feet and a half in length by four in breadth, with a floor made of small squared beams laid close together horizontally, and on which the body and property rested.
" A third mode was, when the body, bent together, and wrapped in birchrind, was enclosed in a kind of box on the ground. The box was made of small square posts, laid on each other horizontally, and notched at the corners to make them meet close. It was about four feet by three, and two and a half feet deep, and well lined with birch rind, to exclude the weather from the inside. The body lay on its right side.
" A fourth, and the most common mode of burying among these people, has been to wrap the body in birch rind, and cover it over with a heap of stones, on the surface of the earth, in some retired spot. Sometimes the body, thus wrapped up, is put a foot or two under the surface, and the spot covered with stones. In one place, where the ground was sandy and soft, they appeared to have been buried deeper, and no stones placed over the graves.
" These people appear to have always shewn great respect for their dead, and the most remarkable remains of them, commonly observed by Europeans at the sea-coast, are their burying places. These are at particular chosen spots; and it is well known that they have been in the habit of bringing their dead from a distance to them. With their women they brought only their clothes.
