14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 56 



form of a cape which extends to her knees. This is to prevent her 

 from seeing any men, though she may talk to them. She may raise 

 her cap only to do sewing or other work in her tent. This custom 

 is still in vogue, but the length of exile is usually cut down to a few 

 months. A neighboring tribe has a custom of not allowing the girls 

 to drink from anything but a special ceremonial drinking cup made 

 of woven roots. This is not allowed to touch her lips ; she drinks 

 by making a gutter of the palm of her hand, through which she 

 pours the water into her mouth. 



FUNERAL CEREMONY 



When a chief, "Ha-kkih," died, men were hired to burn his body, 

 and what was left of bones and ashes was placed in a wooden recep- 

 tacle hewn from a tree trunk and hung about ten feet high in a tree. 

 The men who burned the body ate no fresh meat for a year, because^ 

 according to the law, if those who worked for a dead man should 

 eat fresh meat within a year they would die. They could eat dried 

 meat, but if there was none dried they must wait until some was 

 made. 



It is an old tradition that when persons die they go into a woman 

 and are born again as a baby. The man is born again as a male 

 and the woman as a female. They have no notion of transmigration 

 into animals, believing that when an animal dies it is not born again 

 as a man is. 



Last winter the Eagle chief died. He had hoarded up much 

 wealth of skins, blankets, traps, rifles, and other property, and, since 

 it is not customary among the Eagle Indians for relatives to inherit 

 the property of the deceased, his kinfolk received nothing of his 

 belongings. By common consent Old Peter took charge of the ef- 

 fects. It was then announced that there would be a "pot-latch" in- 

 the spring, when the goods of the deceased man would be given 

 away. Invitations were sent east to the Moosehide Indians up the 

 river, west to the Charlie Creek Indians down the river, and south 

 over the hills to the Ketchumstock Indians. The Porcupine Indians 

 to the north were not invited, because they were not related to the 

 tribe. All the goods were kept intact in the caches until the arrival 

 of the guests. Then Isaac, the Moosehide chief, took full charge 

 of the ceremonies, which lasted several days, during which there 

 was much feasting and dancing. At the dinners, the men first gorged 

 themselves, allowing the women to come in after they had finished 

 and take what was left. Between the ceremonies thev assembled' 



