YARROW] MUMMIES—-NORTHWEST COAST. 135 
these places, of which we examined a great number. This was apparently the more 
ancient form of disposing of the dead, and one which more recently was still pursued 
in the case of poor or unpopular individuals. 
Lastly, in comparatively modern times, probably within a few centuries, and up to 
the historic period (1740), another mode was adopted for the wealthy, popular, or more 
distinguished class. The bodies were eviscerated, cleansed from fatty matters in run- 
ning water, dried, and usually placed in suitable cases in wrappings of fur and fine 
grass matting. The body was usually doubled up into the smallest compass, and the 
mummy case, especially in the case of children, was usually suspended (so as not to 
touch the ground) in some convenient rock shelter, Sometimes, however, the pre- 
pared body was placed in a lifelike position, dressed and armed. They were placed 
as if engaged in some congenial occupation, such as hunting, fishing, sewing, &e. 
With them were also placed effigies of the animals they were pursuing, while the hun- 
ter was dressed in his wooden armor and provided with an enormous mask all orna- 
mented with feathers, and a countless variety of wooden pendants, colored in gay 
patterns. All the carvings were of wood, the weapons even were only fac-similes in 
wood of the original articles. Among the articles represented were drums, rattles, 
dishes, weapons, effigies of men, birds, fish, and animals, wooden armor of rods or 
scales of wood, and remarkable masks, so arranged that the wearer when erect could 
only see the ground at his feet. These were worn at their religious dances from an 
idea that a spirit which was supposed to animate a temporary idol was fatal to who- 
ever might look upon it while so occupied. An extension of the same idea led to the 
masking of those who had gone into the land of spirits. 
The practice of preserving the bodies of those belonging to the whaling class—a 
custom peculiar to the Kadiak Innuit—has erroneously been confounded with the one 
now described. The latter included women as well as men, and all those whom the 
living desired particularly to honor. The whalers, however, only preserved the bodies 
of males, and they were not associated with the paraphernalia of those I have de- 
scribed. Indeed, the observations I have been able to make show the bodies of the 
whalers to have been preserved with stone weapons and actual utensils instead of 
effigies, and with the meanest apparel, and no carvings of consequence. These de- 
tails, and those of many other customs and usages of which the shell heaps bear no 
testimony * * * donot come within my line. 
Figure 5, copied from Dall, represents the Alaskan mummies. 
Martin Sauer, secretary to Billings’ Expedition,* speaks of the 
Aleutian Islanders embalming their dead, as follows: 
They pay respect, however, to the memory of the dead, for they embalm the bodies 
of the men with dried moss and grass; bury them in their best attire, in a sitting post- 
ure, in a strong box, with their darts and instruments; and decorate the tomb with 
various coloured mats, embroidery, and paintings. With women, indeed, they use less 
ceremony. A mother will keep a dead child thus embalmed in their hut for some 
months, constantly wiping it dry ; and they bury it when it begins to smell, or when 
they get reconciled to parting with it. 
Regarding these same people, a writer in the San Francisco Bulletin 
gives this account: 
The schooner William Sutton, belonging to the Alaska Commercial Company, has 
arrived from the seal islands of the company with the mummified remains of Indians 
who lived on an island north of Ounalaska one hundred and fifty years ago. This 
contribution to science was secured by Captain Henning, an agent of the company 
who has long resided at Ounalaska. In his tranactions with the Indians he learned 
* Billings’ Exped., 1802, p. 161. 
