Feb., 1912. Miscellaneous Hopi Papers — Voth. ioi 



he carried the usual prayer offerings and food to the grave on the third 

 day I followed him over the same trail. Case 5: A man had died of 

 gangrene in a broken leg. As the unfortunate man had had several 

 peculiar attacks during his life it was e xtr eme l y difficult to get any one 

 to render any assistance while he was ill. One night, while we had left 

 the patient to the care of his aged father a part of the time, the man 

 had died towards morning and when we got to the house after breakfast 

 we found that the man had died and the father, with the assistance of 

 one relative had wrapped the body into blankets, taken it on his back, 

 the relative supporting the legs, and the two men had thus dragged the 

 very heavy corpse to a graveyard and buried him. Other similar 

 cases could be cited, showing that death, or even approaching death, 

 strikes such terror to the Hopi heart, that he shuns and flees the sick- 

 bed and death-chamber as much as possible. For this reason he does 

 not like to speak or hear others speak about the dead, however much he 

 may have loved them and he prefers to say, "they are gone" or "they 

 have gone to sleep" to saying, "they have died." 



When death has taken place those that are present cry and mourn 

 but do not lament and scream, as I have had occasion to observe among 

 other tribes. Occasionally a few relatives will assemble in the death- 

 chamber and weep, but those are exceptions. The remains are at once 

 prepared for burial. A nakwakwosi is tied to the hair in front. The 

 face is covered with a layer of cotton, with openings for the eyes and 

 for the nose, which is tied by a string around the forehead "to hide 

 themselves in." To this string are fastened a number of nakwakwosis 

 which they are supposed to wear in the other world. Black marks 

 are made under the eyes on the lips, forehead, cheeks (I think), the 

 palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. 1 Some nakwakwosis 2 

 and sometimes a little food and a small vessel with drinking water is 

 placed on the chest. The body is then wrapped into several blankets 

 around which ropes are wound, and it is then carried on the back of the 

 father or some relative, or on a horse or burrow to its last resting place. 



3. The Burial Places. 



If the deceased be a child, which has not yet been initiated into 

 any of the religious societies, the little body is placed into one of the 

 many crevices along the edge of the mesa, on which the village is situ- 

 ated (see Plates XXXIV and XXXV). 



In various ceremonies nakwakwosis arc prepared for the dead and 

 deposited in shrines and other places where the dead come and get 

 those prepared for them; and those who find none are said to be very 



1 The faces of small children are sometimes only daubed with corn-meal. 

 1 Turkey or eagle feathers are used. 



