84 THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 



centre of the upper edge of the boards an eagle s tail was fastened, spread out like 

 a fan ; two guns without locks were hung up at the ends, and a stick with a piece 

 of calico served as a streamer. All these graves, with the exception of Swell s, are 

 now denuded of their covering of cloth, nothing being replaced when once destroyed 

 by the elements. 



The tying a corpse in its blanket is of recent date. Formerly it was not consid 

 ered necessary to be so particular, but a case of suspended animation, where the 

 patient recovered, having occurred some ten years ago, they adopted it to prevent 

 any future instances of the same kind. The circumstance, as related to me by 

 some Indians, is as follows : The Indian, whose name was Harshlah, resided at 

 Baada village, and died, or was supposed to have died, after a very brief illness. 

 He was buried in the usual manner, but in two days after he managed to free him 

 self and to make his appearance among his friends, greatly to their consternation. 

 After having assured them that he was no spirit, but really alive, they were in 

 duced to listen to his statement. He said that he had been down to the centre 

 of the earth, which the Indians suppose to be the abode of the departed, and there 

 he saw his relatives and friends, who were seated in a large and comfortable lodge 

 enjoying themselves. They told him that he smelled bad like the live people, and 

 that he must not remain among them. So they sent him^back. The people he 

 saw there had no bones ; these they had left behind them on the earth ; all they 

 had taken with them was their flesh and skin, which, as it gradually disappeared by 

 decomposition after death, was removed every nignt to their new abode, and when 

 all was carried there, it assumed the shape each one wore on earth. It is one of 

 the avocations of the dead to visit the bodies of their friends who have died, and 

 gradually, night by night, remove the flesh from the bones, and carry it to the great 

 resting-place, the lodge in the centre of the earth. He further stated that on his 

 return to where he had been buried he struggled and freed himself from his 

 grave-cloth and the box, and then discovered that he had been dead. 1 



This man Harshlah afterwards died of small-pox, and my informant remarked 

 that the second time he was tied up so securely that he never came to life again. 

 Since then they have been very particular to secure all bodies sjo firmly that 

 a revival is hopeless. This circumstance, so fresh in the minds of all the 

 adults of the tribe, and the revelations respecting the other world, which correspond 

 so exactly with their ancient ideas, make it impossible to teach them our views of 

 a future state. They do not doubt the white man s statement, but they say that his 

 heaven, which is represented to be in the sky, is not intended for the Indian, whose 

 abode is in the earth. I have known several instances where, from the attending 

 circumstances, there is little doubt that persons have been buried while in a swoon, 

 or in a simply comatose state, and I have repeatedly urged upon them the folly of 

 burying such persons before means could be tried to resuscitate them ; but I never 

 have been able to get them to wait a single moment after they think the breath 



1 Cases of apparent death, sometimes, perhaps, feigned for the purpose of acquiring influence, or 

 notoriety, are not unfrequent among these coast tribes, and in all those I have known, a similar story 

 lias been told of a visit to the dead country. G. G. 



