176 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
covered with cloth, which is generally white, sometimes partly covered, and some 
have none. Around the grave, both outside and inside of the inclosure, various articles 
are placed, as guns, canoes, dishes, pails, cloth, sheets, blankets, beads, tubs, lamps, 
bows, mats, and occasionally a roughly-carved human image rudely painted. It is 
said that around and in the grave of one Clallam chief, buried a few years ago, 
$500 worth of such things were left. Most of these articles are cut or broken so as to 
render them valueless to man and to prevent their being stolen. Poles are also often 
erected, from 10 to 30 feet long, on which American flags, handkerchiefs, clothes, and 
cloths of various colors are hung. A few graves have nothing of this kind. On some 
graves these things are renewed every year or two. This depends mainly on the 
number of relatives living and the esteem in which they hold the deceased. 
The belief exists that as the body decays spirits carry it away particle by particle 
to the spirit of the deceased in the spirit land, and also as these articles decay they 
are also carried away in a similar manner. I have never known of the placing food 
near a grave. Figures 27 and 28 will give you some idea of this class of graves. 
Figure 27 has a paling fence 12 feet square around it. Figure 28 is simply a frame 
over a grave where there is no enclosure. 
(c) Civilized mode.—A few persons, of late, have fallen almost entirely into the 
American custom of burying, building a simple paling fence around it, but placing no 
articles around it; this is more especially true of the Clallams. 
FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 
In regard to the faneral ceremonies and mourning observances of sections (@) and 
(b) of the preceding subject I know nothing. In regard to (c) and (d), they begin to 
mourn, more especially the women, as soon as a person dies. Their mourning song 
consists principally of the sounds represented by the three English notes mi mi, do do, 
la la; those who attend the funeral are expected to bring some articles to place in the 
coffin or about the grave as a token of respect for the dead. The articles which I 
have seen for this purpose have been cloth of some kind; a small piece of cloth is re- 
turned by the mourners to the attendants as a token of remembrance. They bury 
much sooner after death than white persons do, generally as soon as they can obtain 
a coffin. I know of no other native funeral ceremonies. Occasionally before being 
taken to the grave, I have held Christian funeral ceremonies over them, and these 
services increase from year to year. One reason which has rendered them somewhat 
backward about having these funeral services is, that they are quite superstitious 
about going near the dead, fearing that the evil’spirit which killed the deceased will 
enter the living and kill them also. Especially are they afraid of having children go 
near, being much more fearful of the effect of the evil spirit on them than on older 
persons. 
MOURNING OBSERVANCES. 
They have no regular period, so far as I know, for mourning, but often continue it 
after the burial, though I do not know that they often visit the grave. If they feel 
the loss very much, sometimes they will mourn nearly every day for several weeks ; 
especially is this true when they meet an old friend who has not ‘been seen since the 
funeral, or when they see an article owned by the deceased which they have not seen 
for along time. The only other thing of which I think, which bears on this subject, 
is an idea they have, that before a person dies—it may be but a short time or it may 
be several months—a spirit from the spirit land comes and carries off the spirit of the 
individual to that place. There are those who profess to discover when this is done, 
and if by any of their incantations they can compel that spirit to return, the person 
will not die, but if they are not able, then the person will become dead at heart and 
in time die, though it may not be for six months or even twelve. You will also find 
a little on this subject in a pamphlet which I wrote on the Twana Indians and which 
has recently been published by the Department of the Interior, under Prof. I’. V. 
Hayden, United States Geologist. 
