512 THINGS BURIED WITH THE DEAD. 



and comfort his last moments, and then leave the igloo, or 

 house, which they close up, thus converting it into a tomb.* 

 Crantz tells us that they " lay a dog's head by the grave of a 

 child, for the soul of a dog can find its way everywhere, and 

 will show the ignorant babe the way to the land of souls," 

 and this is admitted by Egede. Moreover, the custom of 

 occasionally burying models of implements, instead of the 

 implements themselves, tends to the same conclusion. 



Captain Cook saw burial mounds of earth or stone at 

 Oonalashka. One of the latter was near the village, and he 

 observed that, in accordance with a custom which seems to 

 prevail all over the world, every one who passed threw a stone 

 on it.f Infants, if unfortunate enough to lose their mothers, 

 are always buried with them; and sickly aged people are 

 sometimes buried alive, as it is considered a kindness to spare 

 them the pain of a lingering death. The Esquimaux observed 

 by Captain Parry had a superstitious idea that any weight 

 pressing upon the corpse would give pain to the deceased. J 

 Such a belief would naturally give rise, in a more favoured 

 country, to vaulted tumuli; but in the extreme north, the 

 only result is that the dead bodies are but slightly covered 

 up, in consequence of which the foxes and dogs frequently 

 dig them up and eat them. This the natives regard with the 

 utmost indifference ; they leave the human bones lying about 

 near the huts, among those of animals which have served 

 for food ; another reason for doubting whether their burial 

 customs can be regarded as satisfactory evidence of any very 

 definite and general belief in a resurrection, or whether the 

 objects which they bury with their friends are really supposed 

 to be of actual use to them. On the whole, the burial customs 

 of the Esquimaux are curiously like those of which we find 



* Graah, 1. c. p. 126. 



t Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, vol. ii. p. 519. 



I 1. c. pp. 395, 417, 550. 



