yarrow ] INHUMATION—COMANCHES. 99 
repast for the mourners. The nearest relatives of the deceased as a sign of their sor- 
row remain within their village for weeks, and sometimes months; the men cut off 
about six inches of their long hair, while the women cut their hair quite short. * * * 
The custom of destroying all the property of the husband when he dies impover- 
ishes the widow and children and prevents increase of stock. The women of the tribe, 
well aware that they will be poor should their husbands die, and that then they will 
have to provide for their children by their own exertions, do not care to have many 
children, and infanticide, both before and after birth, prevails to a great extent. This 
is not considered a crime, and old women of the tribe practice it. A widow may marry 
again after a year’s mourning for her first husband; but having children no man will 
take her for a wife and thus burden himself with her children. Widows generally cul- 
tivate a small piece of ground, and friends and relatives (men) plow the ground for 
them. 
Fig 2, drawn from Captain Grossman’s description by my friend Dr. 
W. J. Hoffman, will convey a good idea of this mode of burial. 
Stephen Powers* describes a similar mode of grave preparation among 
the Yuki of California: 
The Yuki bury their dead in a sitting posture. They dig a hole six feet deep some- 
times, and at the bottom of it ‘‘coyole” under, making a little recess in which the 
corpse is deposited. 
The Comanches of Indian Territory (Nem, we, or us, people), according 
to Dr. Fordyve Grinnell, of the Wichita Agency, Indian Territory, go to 
the opposite extreme, so far as the protection of the dead from the sur- 
rounding earth is concerned. The account as received is given entire, 
as much to illustrate this point as others of interest. 
When a Comanche is dying, while the death-rattle may yet be faintly heard in the 
throat, and the natural warmth has not departed from the body, the knees are strongly 
bent upon the chest, and the legs flexed upon the thighs. The arms are also flexed 
upon each side of the chest, and the head bent forward upon the knees. A lariat, or 
rope, is now used to firmly bind the limbs and body in this position. <A blanket is 
then wrapped around the body, and this again tightly corded, so that the appear- 
ance when ready for burial is that of an almost round and compact body, very unlike 
the composed pall of his Wichita or Caddo brother. The body is then taken and 
placed in a saddle upon a pony, in a sitting posture ; a squaw usually riding behind, 
though sometimes one on either side of the horse, holds the body in position until the 
place of burial is reached, when the corpse is literally tumbled into the excavation 
selected for the purpose. The deceased is only accompanied by two or three squaws, 
or enough to perform the little labor bestowed upon the burial. The body is taken 
due west of the lodge or village of the bereaved, and usually one of the deep washes 
or heads of canons in which the Comanche country abounds is selected, and the 
body thrown in, without special reference to position. With this are deposited the 
bows and arrows; these, however, are first broken. The saddle is also placed in the 
grave, together with maz.y of the personal valuables of the departed. The body is 
then covered over with sticks and earth, and sometimes stones are placed over the 
whole. 
Funeral ceremonies.—The best pony owned by the deceased is brought to the grave 
and killed, that the departed may appear well mounted and caparisoned among his 
fellows in the other world. Formerly, if the deceased were a chief or man of con- 
sequence and had large herds of ponies, many were killed, sometimes amounting to 
200 or 300 head in number. 
The Comanches illustrate the importance of providing a good pony for the conyoy 
*Cont. to N. A. Ethnol., 1877, vol. iii, p. 133. 
