Ossuary Feast

The Huron-Wendat Feast of the Dead

“Two thousand Wendat (Huron) Indians stood on the edge of an enormous burial pit . . . they held in their arms the bones of roughly seven hundred deceased friends and family members. The Wendats had lovingly scraped and cleaned the bones of the corpses that had decomposed on the scaffolds. They awaited only the signal from the master of the ritual to place the bones in the pit. This was the great Feast of the Dead.” Witnesses to these Wendat burial rituals were European colonists, French Jesuit missionaries in particular. Rather than being horrified by these unfamiliar native practices, Europeans recognized the parallels between them and their own understanding of death and human remains. Both groups believed that deceased souls traveled to the afterlife; both believed that elaborate mortuary rituals ensured the safe transit of the soul to the supernatural realm; and both believed in the power of human bones. Appreciating each other’s funerary practices allowed the Wendats and French colonists to find common ground where there seemingly would be none. Erik R. Seeman analyzes these encounters, using the Feast of the Dead as a metaphor for broader Indian-European relations in North America. His compelling narrative gives undergraduate students of early America and the Atlantic World a revealing glimpse into this fascinating—and surprising—meeting of cultures.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The Lost Treasure of Azad Hind Fauj: A Historical Mystery ǀ A gripping story from the Second World War

Second World War The Azad Hind Fauj plans to set up the Azad Hind Bank at Port Blair, after the liberation of the Andaman and Nicobar islands from the British. However, the treasure and men sent to open the branch are mysteriously lost. A British police officer is on a dangerous mission to acquire a mysterious weapon in a forbidden island on Nicobar, which can help them win the WWII. The clue to finding this liquid is hidden in a poem. Many British and Japanese search parties sent to acquire the treasure and the weapon keep disappearing on this forbidden island. A son’s journey to find the truth behind the mysterious disappearance of his father during the Second World War leads him to his ancestral village in Manipur. A cache of unread letters takes him back in time. Will the son be able to find his lost father? How and where did the treasure of Azad Hind Bank disappear? Why do people keep disappearing on the forbidden island of Nicobar?