MORTUARY CUSTOMS 



313 



and the people had brought it out there and abandoned it without any 

 attendant observances. 



Among the Unalit the graveyard is usually quite close to one side of 

 the village, generally behind it or on a small adjacent knoll. The 

 illustration (figure 100) from a photograph taken near St Michael, will 

 show the method of disposing of the dead in that vicinity. 



During my residence at St Michael a shaman died, and the following 

 notes were made on the observances that followed: 



Fig. 100— Mt'tliod of disposing ol the dead at St Michael. 



In consideration of the fact that the deceased had been a shaman, 

 no one did any work in the village for three days following his death. 

 The body, however, had been prepared and placed in the grave box 

 on the morning that he died. The night following, when the people 

 prepared to retire, each man in the village took his urine tub and 

 poured a little of its contents upon the ground before the door, saying, 

 "This is our water; drink" — believing that should the shade return 

 during the night and try to enter, it would taste this water and, finding 

 it bad, would go away. * 



