348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



monies, of which the following is an outline : An endeavor is first 

 made to procure a lock of hair, some saliva, a piece of the sleeve 

 and of the neck of the dress, or of the rim of the hat or head- 

 dress which has absorbed the perspiration of the person to be 

 bewitched. These are placed with a small piece of the skin and 

 flesh of a dead man, dried and roasted before the fire, and rubbed 

 and pounded together. The mixture is then tied up in a piece of 

 skin or cloth, which is covered over with spruce-gum. The little 

 package is next placed in a human bone, which is broken for the 

 purpose, and afterward carefully tied together and put within a 

 human skull. This again is placed in a box, which is tied up and 

 gummed over and then buried in the ground in such a way as to 

 be barely covered. A fire is next built nearly, but not exactly, on 

 the top of the box, so as to warm the whole. Then the evilly dis- 

 posed man, beating his head against a tree, names and denounces 

 his enemy. This is done at night or in the early morning, and in 

 secret, and is frequently repeated till the enemy dies. The actor 

 must not smile or laugh, and must talk as little as possible till the 

 spell has worked. If a man has reason to suppose that he is being 

 practiced on in this way, he or his friends must endeavor to find 

 the deposit and carefully unearth it. Rough handling of the box 

 may prove immediately fatal. It is then cautiously unwrapped 

 and the contents are thrown into the sea. If the evilly disposed 

 person was discovered, he was in former years immediately killed. 

 If, after making up the little package of relics as above noted, it 

 is put into a frog, the mouth of which is tied up before it is 

 released, a peculiar sickness is produced which causes the abdo- 

 men of the person against whom the sorcery is directed to 

 swell. 



After death the body is immediately coffined, not a moment 

 being lost. Should death occur at night, the coffin-box is set out- 

 side the house at once, till daylight may admit of its being dis- 

 posed of. The face of the dead is first washed and the hair combed, 

 and then the face and head are painted with vermilion and the 

 body wrapped in blankets by near relatives or friends. It is then 

 put into any box of a suitable size that can be found, generally 

 one of those used for the storage of house effects or dried fish. 

 The box so employed is named tik-l-d'-tse. The body is doubled 

 up, and no hesitation is felt in using violence toward it in order 

 to press it into the box. The graves of the Kwakiool are of two 

 principal kinds : little scaffolds to which the coffin-box is lashed, 

 high upon the branches of fir-trees, and known as tuh-pe'-kh ; and 

 tombs built of slabs of wood on the ground. Small tent-like erec- 

 tions of calico are now often substituted for the latter, and the 

 bodies of relatives or friends, dying at different times, are in both 

 cases often placed together. If a person of importance or much 



