w 





mallrht I ALASKAN GRAVE-POSTS. 199 



The following is the explanation of Figure 114. It is another design 

 for a grave-post, but refers to a fisherman : 



1. The double-seated baidarka, <>r skin canoe. 



2. A bow used in shooting seal and other marine animals. 



3. A seal. 



4. A whale. 

 The summer lodge is absent in this, as the fisherman did 



not leave the sea-shore in the pursuit of game on land. *<fs 



Figure 115 is a native drawing of a village and neighbor- 

 ing burial-ground, prepared by an Alaskan native in imita- 

 tion of originals seen by him among the natives of the 3 

 mainland of Alaska, especially the Aigaliiqamut. Carvings 

 are generally ou walrus ivory ; sometimes on wooden slats. * 

 In the figure, No. 7 is a representation of a grave-post in posi- 

 tion, bearing an inscription similar in general character to ^lilsu-. 1 """' 

 those in the last two preceding figures. 



AB-^^_ 



Fig. 114. — 



12 3 4 5 6 7 « 



Fig. 115. — Village and burial-grounds. Alaska. 



The details are explained as follows: 



No. 1, 2, 3, 4. Various styles of habitations, representing a settlement. 



5. An elevated structure used for the storage of food. 



6. A box with wrappings, containing the corpse of a child. The 

 small lines, with ball attached, are ornamented appendages consisting 

 of strips of cloth or skin, with charms, or, sometimes, tassels. 



7. Grave-post, bearing rude illustrations of the weapons or imple- 

 ments used by a person during his life. 



8. A grave scaffold, containing adult. Besides the ornamental ap- 

 pendages, as in the preceding, there is a " Shaman stick " erected over 

 the box containing the corpse as a mark of good wishes of a sorrowing 

 survivor. See object No. 1, in Figure 112. 



The following extract from Schoolcraft (Hist. Indian Tribes of the 

 United States, 1851, Vol. I, p. 350, Fig. 40) relates to the burial posts 

 used by the Sioux and Chippewas. Plate LXXX1II is after the illus- 

 tration given by this author in connection with the account quoted : 



Among the Sioux arid Western Chippewas, after the body has been wrapped in its 

 best clothes and ornaments, it is then placed ou a scafford, or in a tree, where it re- 

 mains until the flesh is entirely decayed ; alter which the bones are buried, and the 

 grave-posts fixed. At the head of the grave a tabular piece of cedar, or other wood, 

 called the adjedatig, is set. This grave-board contains the symbolic or representative 

 figure which records, if it be a wairior, his totem; that is to say, the symbol of his 

 family, or surname, and such arithmetical or other devices as serve to denote how 

 many times the deceased has been in war parties, and how many scalps he had taken 



