Victor Roy, a Masonic Poem
VICTOR ROY; A Masonic Poem. BY HARRIETT ANNIE WILKINS. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO DANIEL SPRY, ESQ. GRAND MASTER OF THE GRAND LODGE, A.F. & A.M. OF CANADA. PREFACE. An anecdote appeared some time ago in the pages of "The Craftsman" which gave rise to the ideas embodied in "Victor Roy." It is not a story of
faithful labor that the attempt to explore was abandoned. The guide was
asked if many bodies were therein, and replied "Heaps, heaps," moving
the hands upwards as far they could be stretched. There is no reason to
doubt the accuracy of the information received, as it was voluntarily
imparted.
In a communication received from Dr. A.J. McDonald, physician to the
Los Pinos Indian Agency, Colorado, a description is given of crevice or
rock-fissure burial, which follows:
As soon as death takes place the event is at once announced
by the medicine man, and without loss of time the squaws are
busily engaged in preparing the corpse for the grave. This
does not take long; whatever articles of clothing may have
been on the body at the time of death are not removed. The
dead man's limbs are straightened out, his weapons of war
laid by his side, and his robes and blankets wrapped
securely and snugly around him, and now everything is ready
for burial. It is the custom to secure if possible, for the
purpose of wrapping up the corpse, the robes and blankets in
which the Indian died. At the same time that the body is
being fitted for internment, the squaws having immediate
care of it, together with all the other squaws in the
neighborhood, keep up a continued chant or dirge, the dismal
cadence of which may, when the congregation of women is
large, be heard for quite a long distance. The death song is
VICTOR ROY; A Masonic Poem. BY HARRIETT ANNIE WILKINS. DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO DANIEL SPRY, ESQ. GRAND MASTER OF THE GRAND LODGE, A.F. & A.M. OF CANADA. PREFACE. An anecdote appeared some time ago in the pages of "The Craftsman" which gave rise to the ideas embodied in "Victor Roy." It is not a story of