YARROW. ] CANOE BURIAL—TWANAS. fal 
From these accounts it may be seen that the peculiar customs which 
have been described by the authors cited were not confined to any special 
tribe or area of country, although they do not appear to have prevailed 
among the Indians of the northwest coast, so far as known. 
SUPERTERRENE AND AERIAL BURIAL IN CANOES. 
The next mode of burial to be remarked is that of deposit in canoes, 
either supported on posts, on the ground, or swung from trees, and is 
common only to the tribes inhabiting the northwest coast. 
The first example given relates to the Chinooks of Washington Terri- 
tory, and may be found in Swan.* 
In this instance old Cartumhays, and old Mahar, a celebrated doctor, were the chief 
mourners, probably from being the smartest scamps among the relatives. Their duty 
was to prepare the canoe for the reception of the body. One of the largest and best the 
deceased had owned was then hauled into the woods, at some distance back of the lodge, 
after having been first thoroughly washed and scrubbed. Two large square holes 
were then cut in the bottom, at the bow and stern, for the twofold purpose of render- 
ing the canoe unfit for further use, and therefore less likely to excite the cupidity of 
the whites (who are but too apt to help themselves to these depositories for the dead), 
and also to allow any rain to pass off readily. 
When the canoe was ready, the corpse, wrapped in blankets, was brought out, and 
laid in it on mats previously spread. All the wearing apparel was next put in beside 
the body, together with her trinkets, beads, little baskets, and various trifles she had 
prized. More blankets were then covered over the body, and mats smoothed over all. 
Next, a small canoe, which fitted into the large one, was placed, bottom up, over the 
corpse, and the whole then covered with mats. The canoe was then raised up and 
placed on two parallel bars, elevated four or five feet from the ground, and supported 
by being inserted through holes mortised at the top of four stout posts previously 
firmly planted in the earth. Around these holes were then hung blankets, and all the 
cooking utensils of the deceased, pots, kettles, and pans, each with a hole punched 
through it, and all her crockery-ware, every piece of which was first cracked or 
broken, to render it useless; and then, when all was done, they left her to remain for 
one year, when the bones would be buried in a box in the earth directly under the 
canoe; but that, with all its appendages, would never be molested, but left to go to 
gradual decay. 
They regard these canoes precisely as we regard coffins, and would no more think 
of using one than we would of using our own graveyard relics; and itis, in their view, 
as much of a desecration for a white man to meddle or interfere with these, to them, 
sacred mementoes, as it would be to us to have an Indian open the graves of our rela- 
tives. Many thoughtless white men have done this, and animosities have been thus 
occasioned. 
Figure 23 represents this mode of burial. 
From a number of other examples, the following, relating to the 
Twanas, and furnished by the Rey. M. Kells, missionary to the Skoko- 
mish Agency, Washington Territory, is selected : 
The deceased was a woman about thirty or thirty-five years of age, dead of con- 
sumption. She died in the morning, and in the afternoon I went to the house to at- 
- *Northwest Coast, 1857, p. 185, 
