YARROW.] MOURNING—CROWS. 186 
Tl est vrai qwil y en a qui font festin des cadavres de leurs parens; mais il est faux 
quwelles le mettent & mort dans leur vieillesse, pour avoir le plaisir de se nourrir de 
leur chair, et d’en faire un repas. Quelques Nations de Amérique Méridionale, qui ont 
encore cette coitume de manger les corps morts de leurs parens, n’en usent ainsi que 
par piété, piété mal entendué & la verité, mais piété colorée néanmoins par quelque 
ombre de raison; car ils croyent leur donner une sépulture bien plus honorable. 
To the credit of our savages, this barbarous and revolting practice is 
not believed to have been practiced by them. 
MOURNING, SACRIFICE, FEASTS, FOOD, DANCES, SONGS, 
GAMES, POSTS, FIRES, AND SUPERSTITIONS IN CONNEC- 
TION WITH BURIAL. 
The above subjects are coincident with burial, and some of them, 
particularly mourning, have been more or less treated of in this paper, 
yet it may be of advantage to here give a few of the collected examples, 
under separate heads. 
MOURNING. 
One of the most carefully described scenes of mourning at the death 
of a chief of the Crows is related in the life of Beckwourth,* who for 
many years lived among this people, finally attaining great distinction 
as a warrior. 
I dispatched a herald to the village to inform them of the head chief’s death, and 
then, burying him according to his directions, we slowly proceeded homewards. My 
very soul sickened at the contemplation of the scenes that would be enacted at my 
arrival. When we drew in sight of the village, we found every lodge laid prostrate. 
We entered amid shrieks, cries, and yells. Blood was streaming from every conceiv- 
able part of the bodies of all who were old enough to comprehend their loss. Hundreds 
of fingers were dismembered; hair torn from the head lay in profusion about the 
paths; wails and moans in every direction assailed the ear, where unrestrained joy 
had a few hours before prevailed. This fearful mourning lasted until evening of the 
nextday. = : 
A herald having been dispatched to our other villages to acquaint them with the 
death of our head chief, and request them to assemble at the Rose Bud, in order to 
meet our village and devote themselves to a general time of mourning, there met, in 
conformity to this summons, over ten thousand Crows at the place indicated. Such 
a scene of disorderly, voviferous mourning, no imagination can conceive nor any pen 
portray. Long Hair cut off a large roll of his hair; a thing he was never known to do 
before. The cutting and hacking of human flesh exceeded all my previous experience ; 
fingers were dismembered as readily as twigs, and blood was poured out like water. 
Many of the warriors would cut two gashes nearly the entire length of their arm; 
then, separating the skin from the flesh at one end, would grasp it in their other 
hand, and rip if asunder to the shoulder. Others would carve various devices upon 
*Autobiography of James Beckwourth, 1856, p, 269. 
