100 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
of the deceased to the happy-grounds by the following story, which is current among 
both Comanches and Wichitas : 
“A few years since, an old Comanche died who had no relatives and who was quite 
poor. Some of the tribe concluded that almost any kind of a pony would serve to 
transport him to the next world. They therefore killed at his grave an old, ill-con- 
ditioned, lop-eared horse. But a few weeks after the burial of this friendless one, 
lo and behold he returned, riding this same old worn-out horse, weary and hungry. 
He first appeared at the Wichita camps, where he was well known, and asked for some- 
thing to eat, but his strange appearance, withsunken eyes and hollow cheeks, filled with 
consternation all who saw him, and they fled from his presence. Finally one bolder 
than the rest placed a piece of meat on the end of a lodge-pole and extended it to him. 
He soon appeared at his own camp, creating, if possible, even more dismay than 
among the Wichitas, and this resulted in both Wichitas and Comanches leaving 
their villages and moving en masse to a place on Rush Creek, not far distant from the 
present site of Fort Sill. 
“When the troubled spirit from the sunsetting world was questioned why he thus 
appeared among the inhabitants of earth, he made reply that when he came to the 
gates of paradise the keepers would on no account permit him to enter upon such an 
ill-conditioned beast as that which bore him, and thus in sadness he returned to 
haunt the homes of those whose stinginess and greed permitted him no better equip- 
ment. Since this no Comanche has been permitted to depart with the sun to his 
chambers in the west without a steed which in appearance should do honor alike to 
the rider and his friends.” 
The body is buried at the sunsetting side of the camp, that the spirit may accom- 
pany the setting sun to the world beyond. The spirit starts on its journey the fol- 
lowing night after death has taken place; if this occur at night, the journey is not 
begun until the next night. 
Mourning observances.—All the effects of the deceased, the tents, blankets, clothes, 
treasures, and whatever of value, aside from the articles which have been buried 
with the body, are burned, so that the family is left in poverty. This practice has 
extended even to the burning of wagons and harness since some of the civilized 
habits have been adopted. It is believed that these ascend to heaven in the smoke, and 
will thus be of service to the owner in the other world. Immediately upon the death 
of a member of the household, the relatives begin a peculiar wailing, and the immediate 
members of the family take off their customary apparel and clothe themselves in 
rags and cut themselves across the arms, breast, and other portions of the body, until 
sometimes a fond wife or mother faints from loss of blood. This scarification is usually 
accomplished with a knife, or, as in earlier days, with a flint. Hired mourners are 
employed at times who are in no way related to the family, but who are accomplished 
in the art of crying for the dead. These are invariably women. Those nearly related 
to the departed, cut-off the long locks from the entire head, while those more distantly 
related, or special friends, cut the hair only from one side of the head. In case of the 
death of a chief, the young warriors also cut the hair, usually from the left side of 
the head. 
After the first few days of continued grief, the mourning is conducted more espec- 
ially at sunrise and sunset, as the Comanches venerate the sun; and the mourning at 
these seasons is kept up, if the death occurred in summer, until the leaves fall, or, if 
in the winter, until they reappear. 
It is a matter of some interest to note that the preparation of the 
corpse and the grave among the Comanches is almost identical with 
the burial customs of some of the African tribes, and the baling of the 
body with ropes or cords is a wide and common usage of savage peoples. 
The hiring of mourners is also a practice which has been very preva- 
lent from remotest periods of time. 
