070 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS. 



me that the Klallams always buried their dead iu a sitting posture, and 

 I am satisfied that the Twanas at least bent theirs up until the kuees 

 nearly touched the chin. 



The following is an account of a modern burial of this kind which I 

 witnessed in (. ctober, 1877 : The deceased was about thirty-five years 

 of age and was a widow. Her father took charge, and being an old 

 man there was more of the old Indian style than 1 ever saw before. 

 She died about 9 o'clock in the morning and at 3 o'clock in the after- 

 noon I -was invited to go to the house and hold a religious service. 

 When I arrived she had been placed in a Hudson Bay Company's 

 box, which was only about 3i feet long. If wide, and 1^ high. She was 

 much emaciated when she died or they could hardly have put her in 

 the box, even by doubling her so that her knees nearly touched her 

 chin. A fire was still burning where many of her things had been con- 

 sumed according to their custom. Her mother was singing a mourn- 

 ing isoug, others joining in it at times, often saying, " My daughter, my 

 daughter, why did you die?" About thirty persons were present and 

 all out of doors, the coffin box being under an old shed. I held a fu- 

 neral service and returned home, having been invited to go to the grave 

 the next day. About 9 o'clock the next morning they called for me 

 and we went in a canoe 3 miles to the cemetery, two other canoes 

 having {^receded us, one carrying the corpse. Sometime previous a 

 medicine man had asked the deceased to become his wife, but she had 

 refused, and he had said if she did so, he would kill her by his '•• taraa- 

 nous." This, her friends believed, was the cause of her death, and 

 they compelled him to give the canoe (25 feet long and worth $30) in 

 which she was buried. Four boards of old Indian make, about a foot 

 wide and 7J feet long, used as posts, were secured in the ground to the 

 depth of a foot and a half. Before being erected a hole was cut in 

 each post 2 feet from the uj^per end, and 5 inches square, in which 

 cross-pieces were placed for the canoe to rest on. As each hole was 

 cut, and the board laid aside until the rest were ready, a handful of 

 green leaves was placed over it which was allowed to remain until the 

 post was ready to set up, when the leaves were thrown aside. Leaves 

 were not however j)ut on the last board, tor as soon as the hole in it 

 was cut, they were ready to set all of them in their places. Two other 

 boxes, which I presume contained many articles belonging to the de- 

 ceased, or brought by her friends, were placed in the canoe, together 

 with the coffin box, and the whole was elevated to its position and 

 braced. Over the central part of the canoe, a roof of boards covered 

 with white cloth so as to more than cover all the boxes, was placed, and 

 holes cut in the canoe so as to render it valueless for travelling. On the 

 two posts nearest the water the head -board and foot-board of her bed- 

 stead (American make) were nailed, and on each of these a dress was 

 fastened. I then said a few words to them and pronounced the bene-, 

 diction, when all went down from the hill to the beach except her father, 



