trooker] ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE HURON 133 



MOURNING 



For 10 days after the funeral, the spouse of the deceased lay on 

 mats, covered with furs with his face against the ground. He or she 

 did not speak or answer except to say ciuay (cf. chay in Appendix 3) 

 to those who came to visit them, did not warm himself even in win- 

 ter, ate cold food, did not go to feasts, and went out only at night for 

 necessities. During this time, a handful of hair was cut from the 

 back of the head (JR 10: 273-275).^^ The women wailed, especially 

 in the morning just before daybreak, for entire weeks. Widows, 

 in addition to this wailing, did not adorn themselves or bathe or 

 anoint themselves, had dishevelled hair, and observed a sullen silence 

 (JR39:29).^* 



As fish did not like the dead, a Huron did not go fishing when one 

 of his friends had died ( JR 10 : 167) . 



This period was followed by a year of lesser mourning. Wlien the 

 Huron went visiting, they did not make any salutation, not even say- 

 ing cway and they did not grease their hair (JR 10: 275). When a 

 woman was in mourning, she did not visit anyone, walked with head 

 and eyes lowered, was ill-clad and ill-combed, and had a dirty face, 

 sometimes further blackened with charcoal (JR 29: 285). How- 

 ever, her mother might say otherwise and command her to grease her 

 hair and go to feasts. Remarriage did not take place for a year after 



the death; otherwise the person "would be talked about" (JR 10: 

 275).s5 



The women, especially, frequently went to mourn at the tombs of 

 the dead outside the village ( JR 39 : 31) . 



The Huron believed that the soul did not immediately abandon the 

 body after death. When the corpse was taken to the grave, the soul 



^Ten days of deep mourning is still prescribed by the Iroquois. This mourning ends 

 with the 10-day feast, although lesser mourning obligations remain on the spouse and ritual 

 friends (Shimony 1961 a : 245 )■. Until this feast, the spouse of the deceased is distraught 

 and "untidy" and ought not to talk to anyone. To symbolize the end of the mourning, a 

 matrilineal relative combs the hair of the mourner with a new comb and gives him material 

 for new clothes, as he has been said to have rent his clothing (Shimony 1961 a: 248). 

 The feast itself marks the final departure of the dead from the earth (Shimony 1961 a: 

 245; see note 63, p. 140). Mary Jemison said that a fire was built at the head of the 

 grave for 10 nights, after which the deceased had reached the end of his journey (Seaver 

 1824: 182; see also Beauchamp 1922: 238; Jackson 1830 b : 27 ; Morgan 1901(1) : 168 

 for other early and similar references to such customs). The Wyandot also had a feast 

 at the graves of the deceased (Finley 1840 : 52). 



B* At present, also, the spouse occasionally does not end his mourning at the 10-day feast 

 (Shimony 1961 a : 248). It may have been against this extended mourning that Handsome 

 Lake preached (Parker 1913 : 57 ; Shimony 1961 a : 245). 



^ This period of lesser mourning, during which the mourner should not participate in 

 pleasurable social events, now lasts until the next long ceremonial, either Green Corn or 

 Midwinter, or at the most half a year. During these ceremonials, the mourner is released 

 in a special ritual and Is free to remarry. There is still, however, a feast held on the 

 anniversary of the death (Shimony 1961 a : 250-251). It is not unlikely that in the past 

 the surviving spouse was free to remarry after this latter observance (cf. Curtin and Hewitt 

 1918: 459-460). 



