YARROW.]} INHUMATION—OTOE, 97 
present the bereaved family with useful articles of domestic needs, such as calico in 
bolt, flannel cloth, robes, and not unfrequently ponies or horses. After the conclu- 
sion of the ceremonies at the lodge, the body is carefully placed in a wagon and, with 
an escort of all friends, relatives, and acquaintances, conveyed to the grave previously 
prepared by some near relation or friend. When a wagon is used, the immediate rela- 
tives occupy it with the corpse, which is propped in a semi-sitting posture; before 
the use of wagons among the Otoes, it was necessary to bind the body of the deceased 
upon a horse and then convey him to his last resting place among his friends. In past 
days when buffalo were more available, and a tribal hunt was more frequently in- 
dulged in, itis said that those dying on the way were bound upon horses and thus 
frequently carried several hundred miles for interment at the burial places of their 
friends. 
At the graveyard of the Indians the ceremony partakes of a double nature; upon 
the one hand it is sanguinary and cruel, and upon the other blended with the deepest 
grief and most heartfelt sorrow. Before the interment of the dead the chattels of 
the deceased are unloaded from the wagons or unpacked from the backs of ponies and 
carefully arranged in the vault-like tomb. 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 neighbor. The sides 
are then carefully hung with handsome shawls or blankets, and trunks, with domestic 
articles, pottery, &c., of less importance, are piled around in abundance. The sacri- 
fices are next inaugurated. A pony, first designated by the dying Indian, is led aside 
and strangled by 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 often placed in a plain coffin, is lowered into 
the grave, and if a coffin is used the friends take their parting look at the deceased 
before closing it at the grave. After lowering, a saddle and bridle, blankets, dishes, 
&c., are placed upon it, the mourning ceases, and the Indians prepare to close the 
grave. It should be remembered, among the Otoe and Missouri Indians dirt is not 
filled in upon the body, but simply rounded up from the surface upon stout logs that 
are accurately fitted over the opening of the grave. After the burying is completed, 
a distribution of the property of the deceased takes place, the near relatives receiv- 
ing everything, from the merest trifle to the tent and horses, leaving the immediate 
family, wife and children or father out-door pensioners. 
Although the same generosity is not obseryed towards the whites assisting in fu- 
neral rites, it is universally practiced as regards Indians, and poyerty’s lot is borne by 
the survivors with a fortitude and resignation which in them amounts to duty, and 
marks a higher grade of intrinsic worth than pervades whites of like advantages and 
conditions. We are told in the Old Testament Scriptures, ‘‘four days and four nights 
should the fires burn,” &c. In fulfillment of this sacred injunction, we find the mid- 
night vigil carefully kept by these Indians four days and four 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 dawn. There was an ancient tradition that at the expiration of this time 
the Indian arose, and mounting his spirit pony, galloped off to the happy hunt- 
ing-ground beyond. 
Happily, with the advancement of Christianity these superstitions have faded, and 
the living sacrifices are partially continued only from a belief that by parting with 
their most cherished and valuable goods they propitiate the Great Spirit for the sins 
committed during the life of the deceased. This, thongh at first revolting, we find 
was the practice of our own forefathers, offering up as burnt offerings the lamb or 
the ox; hence we cannot censure this people, but, from a comparison of conditions, 
credit them with a more strict observance of our Holy Book than pride and seductive 
fashions permit of us. 
° 
(AE 
