THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 83 



FUNERAL CEREMONIES. When a person dies the body is immediately rolled up 

 in blankets and firmly bound with ropes and cords, then doubled up into the 

 smallest possible compass and placed in a box which is also firmly secured with 

 ropes. AVhcn all is ready, the boards of a portion of the roof are removed, and the 

 box with the body taken out at the top of the house and lowered to the ground, 

 from a superstition that if a dead body is carried through the doorway, any person 

 passing through it afterwards would sicken and die. The box is then removed to 

 a short distance from the house, and sometimes placed in a tree ; but of late years 

 the prevailing custom is to bury it in the earth. A hole is first dug with sticks and 

 shells deep enough to admit the box, leaving the top level with the surface. 

 Boards are then set up perpendicularly all around so as to completely inclose it, 

 their ends rising above the ground from four to five feet. A portion of the property 

 of the deceased is placed on top of the box ; this, in the case of a man, consists 

 of his fishing or whaling gear, or a gun with the lock removed, his clothing, and 

 bedding. If a female, beads and bracelets of brass, iron, calico, baskets, and her 

 apparel. A little earth is thrown on top, and then the whole space filled up with 

 stones. Blankets, calico, shawls, handkerchiefs, looking glasses, crockery and tin 

 ware, are then placed around and on the grave for show, no particular order being 

 observed, but each being arranged according to the fancy of the relatives ef the 

 deceased. The implements used in digging the grave are also left and placed 

 among the other articles. A description of a few of these graves may not be out 

 of place. One was that of a woman who was buried at Baa da, the eastern ex 

 tremity of Necah Bay. The husband was a young chief, who decorated it as 

 became his ideas of his dignity. In front of the grave was a board on which was 

 painted the representation of a rainbow, which they believe has great claws at each 

 end with which it grasps any one so unfortunate as to come within its reach. On 

 top of the board, which formed its edge, was a sort of shelf containing the crockery 

 ware of the deceased ; and on the left corner a carved head of an owl, wrapped up 

 with a white cloth. A short stick wound with calico at the right corner bore a 

 handkerchief at its top, and from two tall poles similarly wound around with calico 

 a shawl, a dress pattern, and some red flannel were displayed like flags. At the 

 expiration of a year the cloth disappeared, having been rotted by the rains and torn 

 into shreds by the wind. 



Another was the grave of a chief named Hure-tall, known by the whites as 

 &quot; Swell,&quot; and who was killed by an Elwha Indian in 1861 while engaged in bringing 

 supplies from Port Townsend for the trading post at Nccah Bay. As he was an 

 Indian well known and very much respected by the whites, his body was received 

 by some settlers at Port Angeles, and placed in a box, and was brought from thence 

 to Neeah Bay by a brother of the deceased, assisted by myself and another white 

 man. The box was deposited in the ground, after the custom of the Indians, 

 and over his remains a monument was raised by the relatives. It is built of 

 cedar boards, and surmounted by a pole on the top of which is a tin oil can. 

 Around its base ^are the painted tamanawas boards which he had in his lodge. A 

 third grave is that of an Indian boy, at Baiida. A couple of posts were set up at 

 the ends, and boards fastened to them which were covered with blankets, lu the 



