A further contribution to the study of the mortuary customs of the North American Indians

The primitive ways and customs of the North American Indians are rapidly passing under the influence of civilization and other disturbing elements. By thus drawing attention to the work, the classification of the subject, or furnished examples of funeral ceremonies, may be given.

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Before the burial of the dead, the deceased's personal belongings are unloaded from the wagons or packed out from the backs of ponies and carefully arranged in a grave-like tomb. Fortunately, with the progress of Christianity, this superstition has emerged, and the living sacrifices are only partly continued from a belief that by disposing of their most beloved and valuable possessions they propitiate the Great Spirit for the sins that are committed during the deceased's lifetime.

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J. Hoffman, will convey a good idea of this mode of burial

FordyceGriuuell of the Wichita Agency, Indian Territory, go to the opposite extreme as far as protecting the dead from sur-. The body is taken to the west of the tin or mourners' village, and one of the deep washes or canon-heads, with which the Comanche country abounds, is usually selected, and the body thrown into it, without any particular reference to the position.

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GRAVE BURIAL

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Pierre Muret,t from whose book Bruhier probably obtained his information, gives at considerable length an account of this peculiar

It is surprising, considering that the Persians were ever reputed to be one of the most civilized Nations in the world, that notwithstanding they should have used such barbarous customs for the Dead, as are described in the Writings of some Historians; and on the contrary because to-day there are still to be seen among them those remains of Antiquity, which fully satisfy them to have them.

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Each circle of open stone coffins is divided from the next by a path, so that there are three circular paths, the last circling the central pit, and these three paths are crossed by another path leading from the solitary door leading to the pallbearers allow from outside. In the outer circle of the stone coffins are placed the bodies of males, in the middle those of the females, and in the inner and smallest circle are the things of children.

Fig. 3.— Parsee Towers of Silence (interior).

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The funeral ceremonies occupy three days, during which the soul of the deceased is in danger from O-mah-d, orthevil. Army, one of the most conscientious and careful observers, the writer is indebted for the following interesting account of the mortuary customs of the.

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The men sharpened sticks and ran them through the skin of their arms and legs, while both men and women generally continued their crying for the rest of the day, and the immediate relatives of the deceased for several days afterwards. Nowadays the squaws, as a mourning ceremony, cut themselves with knives on their legs, cut their hair with oil, and weep and wail around the grave of the dead, and the men additionally paint their faces, but no longer torture themselves with the help of sticks that are pierced through the skin of the arms and legs.

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At the bottom of the arroyas, which were certainly formed after the occupation of the village, we found parts of human remains, and, following up the walls of the ditch, we soon had the pleasure of discovering several skeletons in situ. Coyoteros, after the death of a member of the tribe, partially wrap the corpse in the cavity by removing a small stone or a stump of a tree.

CANOE BURIAL IN GROUND

STONE GBA VES OB CISTS

BURIAL IN MOUNDS

BUKIAL MOUNDS OP OHIO

EXCAVATION OF AN INDIAN MOUND

Finding nothing under this rock, he made an excavation to the south of the grave and soon came upon another rock, which on examination was found to lie in front of the remains of a human skeleton in a sitting position. The sutures of the skull indicated that the victim was 25 or 28 years old, and the plug rested about a foot below the plow mark.

BURIAL BENEATH, OR IN CABINS, WIGWAMS, OR HOUSES

The Navajos of New Mexico and Arizona, a tribe living at a considerable distance from the Chickasaws, follow somewhat similar customs, as shown by Dr. Ford, Third United States Cavalry, in a personal communication with the writer, corroborates the account given by Dr.

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Another example of burial in houses can be found in connection with the publications of the Hakluyt Society, 1849, p. Wood,* bury their dead within the enclosure of the homestead, fix a stake in the ground, and fasten certain emblems to it.

CAVE BURIAL

While in Utah Territory in 1872, the author discovered a natural cave not far from the Home Range of mountains, the entrance of which resembled the shaft of a mine. In this the Gosi-Ute Indians deposited their dead, surrounded with various articles, until it was completely full; at least it appeared so from the cursory examination made, limited time preventing a careful exploration.

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It is the general opinion of those who have noticed this cave and seen it years ago that it was a burying ground of the present day Indians. It had apparently been associated in the Innuit fashion with its narrow house, but all the bones, except the skull, were reduced to a soft paste, even completely gone.

EMBALMMENT OR MUMMIFICATION

It should be added that, in the opinion of the writer, this and other similar records are somewhat apocryphal and have been copied and rewritten many times. For their ordinary burials, they dig a deep hole in the ground with sharp stakes, and place the corpse on it, which has been pierced with jewels in skins and mats.

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Another class of mummies are those found in the salt flats and other caves of Kentucky, and it is still a matter of doubt to archaeologists whether any special effort was made to preserve these bodies, many believing that the saturation of the soil with certain minerals would constitute the condition in which the specimens were found. The wall fill appears to have been cross-cut and knotted by an operation similar to that of the Northwest Coast and Sandwich Islands fabrics.

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL

The whalers, however, only preserved the bodies of men, and they were not associated with the paraphernalia of those I have described. This contribution to science was ensured by Captain Henuing, an agent of the company who has lived in Ouualaska for a long time.

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With the following examples as illustrations, the question of embalming may be dismissed for the moment, with the advice to observers that special care should be taken, in case mummies are discovered, to ascertain whether the bodies have undergone a regular process of preservation, or owes their protection. the ingredients in the soil of their graves orthodesication in dry districts.

URN-BURIAL

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SURFACE BURIAL

YARROW.] SURFACE BURIAL. 139

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My special interest in the case was the charge of witchcraft against a young squaw who was executed for killing hiuibyherarts.

A. Bricef mentions a curious variety of surface burial not hereto- fore met with

CAIRN-BURIAL

Foreign lands are the custom prevailing among certain African tribes, and it is said that the ancient inhabitants of the Balearic Islands covered their dead with a heap of stones, but this.

CREMATION

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After the process of burning the corpse is finished, the widow collects the larger bones, which she rolls against an envelope of birch bark, and which she is obliged to carry back for some years afterwards. She is then free to remarry or live a life of singular bliss; but few of them, I believe, want to run the risk of attending a second widowhood.

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The squaws, madder still, hurled wildly at the pyreial they had in the world—their dearest jewelry, their gaudy dresses, their strings of glittering shells. It seems as if the savage shared Shakspeare's shudder at the thought of freezing in the gloomy grave, for it is the one passion of his superstition to think of the soul, of his departed friend, released and cleansed by the swift purifying heat of the flames, which does not is pulled down to be plugged and bound in the molded body.

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The ends of the wooden covering, where they were protected by the earth above and below, were reduced to charcoal, parallel pieces which were found perpendicular to the length of the earth.

PARTIAL CREMATION

In addition to this mourning, the female blood relatives of the deceased (who, by the way, seemed to be a distinguished man) had their hair cut short. A few centimeters below the surface were found the bones of the neck and below them the rest of the skeleton, except for the bones of the hands and feet.

AERIAL SEPULTURE

LODGE-BVUIAL

The staves of the lodge in a closed oblong circle, about 18 by 22 feet at the base, converging to a point at least 30 feet high, covered with buffalo hide, clothed without hair, except the tail switch, which hovers like a float outside, and is mingled with human hair. Over the small entrance is a large bright cross, with upright the largest white wolf skin on his warring, and a cross of pale crimson flannel containing the quiver of bow and arrow still carried by almost all warriors, even when armed with guns.

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JosiahPriest* reports on the burial grounds of a tribe of Pacific Indians living on the Talomeco River in Oregon. In the smaller coffins and baskets, the Spaniards found the clothes of deceased men and women and some pearls, which they handed out among the officers and soldiers.

INNUIT OF YUKON

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TREE AND SCAFFOLD BURIAL

FUNERAL CEREMONIES AND MOURNING OBSERVANCES

Iu case the dead were very important, or if the family could afford it, even if they were not, one or more horses (usually, iu the former case, those of which the deceased thought most) are shot and placed under the scaffold. This custom has in some cases been carried so far as to leave some of the family not only absolutely destitute, but actually naked.

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John Young, Indian Agent at the Blackfeet Agency, Montana, sends the following account of tree burials among this tribe. The following description of a stage burial between the Gros Ventres and the Mandaus of the Dakotas was presented by E.

YARROW.) SCAFFOLD BURIAL SIOUX. 163

I CATION AT BURIAL

SCAFFOLD BURIAL SIOUX. 165 Figure 20 represents scarification as a form of grief-expression for the

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That ravens and other carrion-eating birds should feast on the dead body doesn't seem to bother the survivors after all, audito.

PARTIAL SCAFFOLD BURIAL AND OSSUARIES

TARR0W 1 CANOE BURIAL TWANAS. 171 From these accounts it may be seen that the peculiar customs which

SUPERTERRENE AND AERIAL BURIAL IN CANOES

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The Clallauis and Twauas, an allied tribe, did not always follow burial by canoe, as may be seen from the following account, also written by Mr. Eells, who gives the reasons why the original method of disposing of the dead was abandoned.

Figure 24 is from a sketch kindly furnished by Mr. Eells, and repre- repre-sents the burial mentioned in his narrative.

MOURNING OBSERVANCES

177 George Gibbs* gives a very interesting account of the burial ceremonies of the Indians of Oregon and Washington Territory. A fire caused by the carelessness of one of his party destroyed the whole, much to the indignation of the Indians.

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The PugetSound Indians do not make these tamahno-ne boards, but sometimes build effigies of their chiefs, resembling the person as nearly as possible, dressed in his usual costume, and wearing articles of which they like .

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AQUATIC BURIAL

This unusual method of burial is, so far as known, quite unique, but the well-known honesty of the relative might call it into question, especially if we remember that the talk of the country is water. Conjecture seems useless to ascertain the reason for this arrangement of the dead, unless we are inclined to assign them.

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L.1VING SEPULCHERS

To the credit of our savages, this barbarous ami revolting practice is not believed to have been practiced by tbem. The above subjects coincide with the funeral, and some of them, especially the lamentations, have been more or less dealt with in this paper, but it may be useful to give some of the examples collected, under separate heads.

MOUHNING

FUNERAL, FUNERAL, FESTIVAL, FOOD, DANCING, SONGS, GAMES, MAILS, FIRES AND FUNERAL RELATED FUNERAL FUNERAL GAMES, MAILS, FIRES AND FUNERAL FUNERAL.

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MOURNING CHIPPEWA. 185

SACRIFICE

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But you are his friends, and those of his brother." Their laws obliged the wife of the Great Sun to follow her husband to the grave; this was no doubt the cause of her fear; and also the gratitude to the French, of who were interested in his life, urged him to speak to his spirit over his mind and mind. words, it was discovered that the chief had decided that the dead boy 'Shoku, who had been his companion in rabbit-hunting, having catching the pheasant and fishing in the streams, would be his companion in the spirit land; his son should not be deprived of his companion in the foreign world from which he had fled; that companion should die from the father and be dead with him..

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FEASTS

Ossuaries were not only used by savage nations, for the habit of digging up and collecting the bones of the dead after a certain period. In 1857, the writer saw in the churchyard of Zug, Switzerland, a crevasse containing the remains of hundreds of individuals.

SUPERSTITION REGARDING BURIAL FEASTS

He was then bound up with the bark of certain trees which they use to make ropes, and bands of a very firm texture and hold (the only they have), and instead of being buried in the earth, he was attached to a large oak tree.

FOOD

DANCES

When the ceremonies were about to begin, the old man and the young woman were summoned, and standing at the end opposite the entrance, they inaugurated the exercises by a short service, which appeared to be a dedication of the house for the exercises about to begin. Before the dance began, the chief of the visiting tribe made a short speech, in which he no doubt referred to the death of the Yo-kai-a chief, and offered the sympathy of history in this loss.

SONGS

GAMES

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One of the regular blacks with the side after fall, the others, having the least black, gives another throw when the same turn again wins.

POSTS

FIEES

BURIAL SUPERSTITIONS — CHIPPEWAS. 199

SUPERSTITIONS

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The superstitious fear that Indians have of the dead or the spirits of the dead can be deduced from the following story of Swan.* It concerns the inhabitants of Washington Territory. It is thought that sufficient illustrative examples have now been given so that observers can thoroughly understand the scope of what is proposed.