158 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
mournful refrain, until it is interred. They seldom suspect that others have brought 
the death about by shaménism, as the Indians almost invariably do. 
At the end of a year from the death, a festival is given, presents are made to those 
who assisted in making the coffin, and the period of mourning is over. Their grief 
seldom seems deep, but they indulge for a long time in wailing for the dead at inter- 
vals. I have seen several women who refused to take a second husband, and had re- 
mained single, in spite of repeated offers, for many years. 
INGALIKS OF ULUKUK. 
As we drew near, we heard a low, wailing chant, and Mikéla, one of my men, in- 
formed me that it was women lamenting for the dead. On landing, I saw several 
Indians hewing out the box in which the dead are placed. * * * The body lay on 
its side in a deer-skin; the heels were lashed to the small of the back, and the head 
bent forward on the chest, so that his coffin needed to be only about four feet long. 
TREE AND SCAFFOLD BURIAL, 
We may now pass to what may be called aerial sepulture proper, the 
most common examples of which are tree and scaffold burial, quite ex- 
tensively practiced even at the present time. From what can be learned, 
the choice of this mode depends greatly on the facilities present ; where 
timber abounds, trees being used; if absent, scaffolds being employed. 
From William J. Cleveland, of the Spotted Tail Agency, Nebraska, 
has been received a most interesting account of the mortuary customs of 
the Brulé or Teton Sioux, who belong to the Lakotah alliance. They 
are called Sicaugu, in the Indian tongue Seechaugas, or the “burned 
thigh” people. The narrative is given in its entirety, not only on ac- 
count of its careful attention to details, but from its known truthfulness 
of description. It relates to tree and scaffold burial. 
FUNERAL CEREMONIES AND MOURNING OBSERVANCES. 
Though some few of this tribe now lay their dead in rude boxes, either burying them 
when implements for digging can be had, or, when they have no means of making a 
grave, placing them on top of the ground on some hill or other slight elevation, yet 
this is done in imitation of the whites, and their general custom, as a people, probably 
does not differ in any essential way from that of their forefathers for many genera- 
tions in the past. In disposing of the dead, they wrap the body tightly in blankets 
or robes (sometimes both), wind it all over with thongs made of the hide of some ani- 
mal,.and place it, reclit. ‘1g on the back at full length, either in the branches of some 
tree or on a scaffold mav.c for the purpose. These scaffolds are about eight feet high, 
and made by planting four forked sticks firmly in the ground, one at each corner, and 
then placing others across on top, so as to form a floor, on which the body is securely 
fastened. Sometimes more than one body is placed on the same scaffold, though gen- 
erally a separate one is made for each occasion. These Indians being in all things 
most superstitious, attach a kind of sacredness to these scaffolds and all the materials 
used on or about the dead. This superstition is in itself sufficient to prevent any of 
their own people from disturbing the dead, and for one of another nation to in any 
wise meddle with them is considered an offense not too severely punished by death. 
