Mauch 1, 1886.] 



KNO\VLEDGE ♦ 



151 



AmoBg the Otoe and Missouri tribes of Indians 

 located in Gage county, Nebraska, it is usual to prepare 

 the burial costume before the man for whom it is being 

 prepared is quite dead. He is dressed in his finest 

 clothes and ornaments, according to his own taste and 

 directions. He tells his friends whether he wishes to 

 have the customary sacrifices offered at his funeral or 

 not, and they observe his commands implicitly. After 

 he has given all his directions the women cut away part 

 of his hair close to the scalp. The funeral shroud is 

 composed generally of the most expensive blankets, 

 ribbons, and beadwork. When the corpse is dressed 

 it is placed in a recumbent position iu view 

 of all the relatives, who keep up a continual series 

 of piercing screams and loud lamentations, express- 

 ing a grief which shows the intensity cf Indian devotion 

 and attachment. When all is in readiness, the aged men 

 arranged in a circle round one of their number, chant a 

 peculiar funeral dirge, keeping time upon a drum or 

 some cooking utensil. Now and then an aged relative 

 will get more excited than the rest, dancing excitedly, 

 vociferating with wild gestures, tomahawk in hand, and 

 imprecating the evil spirit, which he endeavours to drive 

 away to the land where the .sun goes down. The evil 

 spirit being thus eiiectually banished, the mourning 

 gradually subsides, blending into scenes of feasting and 

 refreshment. The burial feast is in every respect 

 equal in richness to its accompanying ceremonies. " All 

 who assemble are provided with cooked venison, hog, 

 buffalo, or beef, regiilar waiters distributing hot cakes 

 soaked in grease and coffee or water as the case may be." 

 After the feasting is over the corpse is placed in a 

 waggon and propped up in a sitting position, with 

 friends on each side ; or else it is bound on a horse, and 

 " thus conveyed to its last resting-place among his 

 friends." In this same waggon all the goods and chattels 

 of the deceased are placed, which are unloaded at the 

 burial place, and arranged in the vault-like tomb, after 

 which the corpse is laid in the grave. " The bottom 

 which is wider than the top (graves here being 

 dug like an inverted funnel), is spread with straw 

 or grass matting, woven generally by the Indian 

 women of the tribe, or some near neighbour. The sides 

 are then carefully hung with handsome shawls or 

 blankets, and trunks, with domestic articles, pottery, 

 itc, of less importance, are generally piled around in 

 abundance. The sacrifices are next inaugurated. A 

 pony, first designated by the dying Indian, is led aside 

 and strangled bj' men hanging to either end of a rope. 

 Sometimes, but not always, a dog is likewise strangled, 

 the heads of both animals being subsequently laid upon 

 the Indian's grave. The body, which is now placed in 

 a plain coffin, is lowered into the grave, and if a cofiin is 

 used the friends take their parting look at the deceased 

 before closing it at the grave. After lowering a saddle, 

 bridle, blankets, dishes, etc., the mourning ceases and the 

 Indians prepare to close the grave." Among the Otoe 

 and Missouri Indians dirt is not thrown in upon the 

 body, but simply rounded uj) from the surface upon stout 

 logs that are accurately fitted over the opening of the 

 grave. After the funeral ceremony is completed all 

 the property of the deceased, from a tent and 

 horses to the merest trifle, are distributed among 

 the relatives, whilst wife, children, or father are left 

 without anything. A midnight vigil is carefully kept 

 by these Indians four days and nights at the graves of 

 their departed. " A small fire is kindled for the purpose 

 near the grave at sunset, where the nearest relatives 

 convene and maintain a continuous lamentation till the 



morning dawns. There wr.s an ancient tradition that at 

 the expiration of this time the Indian arose, and mount- 

 ing his spirit-pony, galloped cff to the happy hunting- 

 ground beyond."* 



Formerly, when a Greenlander died his property was 

 regarded as having no owner, unless he had grown-up 

 children, and every one took what he could get, whilst 

 the wretched widow or children were left out-door 

 pensioners. In Yanua Levu, one of the Fiji Islands, a 

 chief's death " is the signal for plunder, the nearest rela- 

 tions rushing to the house to appropriate all they can 

 seize belonging to those who lived there with the 

 deceased. "t 



{To lif Clint hiuerf.') 



WASPS AND HORNTAILS, 



Bv E. A. BuTLi.B. 



F our seven British species of Te.qm, the 

 hornet stands by itself, both as regards 

 size and colour, and may be conveniently 

 left till we have considered the remaining 

 lix, which are more or less alike, and con- 

 sist of three that form their nests under- 

 ground and three that build in trees. The 

 latter are V. sijlvestris, iirlorea, and nnrvegica. The 

 second of these we need not trouble ourselves about, as it 

 is a rare insect, and not at all likely to be met with. 

 Norvegira occurs princi[ially in the north of our island, 

 being fairly common in Scotland; and sijlvesins, yihUe 

 generally distributed, is yet not so common as the ground 

 builders. 



The latter are V. vulgaris, the so-called "common 

 wasp " (not that it is always the commonest, though 

 often so), germanica, and rnf", and it is the two former 

 of these that are most likely to fly in at our open windows 

 and manifest a disposition to join ns in our meals. On 

 one occasion a large number of females of germanica were 

 found gregariously hibernating in an upper room of a 

 large building that was used for storing furniture. Some 

 were amongst some blankets used in covering the furni- 

 ture, and others were clinging to some rough woodw'ork, 

 into which, as with a consciousness that their limbs 

 would become benumbed and useless during the winter, 

 they had firmly dug their mandibles. To give an idea of 

 the proportionate distribution of these species, I may 

 mention that a friend of mine in the south of England, 

 last summer, on examining sixty wasps that had been 

 captured quite promiscuously in his garden, found them 

 to consist cf twenty-four germanica, fourteen rulgaris, 

 seventeen rufa, and five sijlvestris. This, however, 

 probably represents an unu.sually large j roportion of 

 rufa. 



For the distinctions of these six yellow and black 

 species, we must look mainly at the face and the first 

 segment of the abdomen. Turning first to the former of 

 these, we examine carefully the central plate referred to 

 in our last paper — viz., the'clypeus — and are at once struck 

 by differences here; iu all the clypeus itself is yellow, 

 but the black markings upon it vary (Fig. 1). Vulgaris 

 and rufa carry on the clypeus a vertical black stripe, 

 descending, in the workers, from the centre of its upper 



* Account given by Dr. W. C. Boteler, physician to the Otoe 

 Indian agency. Gage countr, Nebraska, published m first annual 

 report, Bureau of Ethnology, p. '.»>, Smithsonian Institution. 



t Sir .1. Liilibnnk. " Oritrin of Civilisation," p. 447. 



