98 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
From a careful review of the whole of their attendant ceremonies a remarkable sim- 
ilarity can be marked. The arrangement of the corpse preparatory to interment, the 
funeral feast, the local service by the aged fathers, are all observances that have been 
noted among whites, extending into times that are in the memory of those still living. 
The Pimas of Arizona, actuated by apparently the same motives that 
led the more eastern tribes to endeavor to prevent contact of earth with 
the corpse, adopted a plan which has been described by Capt. F. E. 
Grossman,* and the account is corroborated by M. Alphonse Pinartt 
and Bancroft. 
Captain Grossman’s account follows: 
The Pimas tie the bodies of their dead with ropes, passing the latter around their 
neck and under the knees, and then drawing them tight until the body is doubled up 
and forced into a sitting position. They dig the graves from four to five feet deep and 
perfectly round (about two feet in diameter), and then hollow out to one side of the 
bottom of this grave a sort of vault large enough to contain the body. Here the body 
is deposited, the grave is filled up level with the ground, and poles, trees, or pieces of 
timber placed upon the graye to protect the remains from coyotes. 
Fic, 2.—Pima burial. 
Burials usually take place at night without much ceremony. The mourners chant 
during the burial, but signs of grief are rare. The bodies of their dead are buried, if 
possible, immediately after death has taken place; and the graves are generally pre- 
pared before the patients die. Sometimes sick persons (for whom the graves had already 
been dug) recover. In such cases the graves are left open until the persons for whom 
they are intended die. Open graves of this kind can be seen in several of their burial 
grounds. Places of burial are selected some distance from the village, and, if possi- 
ble, in a grove of mesquite trees. 
Immediately after the remains have been buried, the house and personal effects of 
the deceased are burned, and his horses and cattle killed, the meat being cooked as a 
*Rep. Smithsonian Institution, 1871, p. 407. 
+ Voy. dans Arizona, in Bull. Soc. de Géographie, 1877. 
tNat. Races Pacif. States 1874, vol. 1, p. 555. 
