=. . 
yannow.] MOURNING—CHIPPEWA. 185 
never to be seen without it. Ifshe walks out she takes it with her; if she sits down 
in her lodge, she places it by her side. This badge of widowhood and of mourning the 
widow is compelled to carry with her until some of her late husband’s family shall call 
and take it away, which is done when they think she has mourned long enough, and 
which is generally at the expiration of a year. She is then, but not before, released 
from her mourning, and at liberty to marry again. She has the privilege to take this 
husband to the family of the deceased and leave it, but this is considered indecorons, 
and is seldom done. Sometimes a brother of the deceased takes the widow for his 
wife at the grave of her husband, which is done by a ceremony of walking her over it. 
And this he has aright to do; and when this is done she is not required to go into 
mourning; or, if she chooses, she has the right to go to him, and he is bound to support 
her. 
I visited a lodge to-day, where I saw one of these badges. The size varies accord- 
ing to the quantity of clothing which the widow may happen to have. It isexpected 
of her to put up her best and wear her worst. The ‘‘husband” I saw just now was 30 
inches high and 18 inches in circumference. 
I was told by the interpreter that he knew a woman who had been left to mourn 
after this fashion for years, none of her husband’s family calling for the badge or token 
of her grief. At a certain time it was told her that some of her husband’s family were 
passing, and she was advised to speak to them on the subject. She did so, and told 
them she had mourned long and was poor; that she had no means to buy clothes, and 
her’s being all in the mourning badge, and sacred, could not be touched. She ex- 
pressed a hope that her request might not be interpreted into a wish to marry; it was 
only made that she might be placed in a situation to get some clothes. She got for 
answer, that “they were going to Mackinac, and would think of it.” They left herin 
this state of uncertainty, but on returning, and finding her faithful still, they took 
her ‘‘husband” and presented her with clothing of various kinds. Thus was she re- 
warded for her constancy and made comfortable. 
The Choctaw widows mourn by never combing their hair for the term of their grief, 
which is generally about a year. The Chippeway men mourn by painting their faces 
black. 
I omitted to mention that when presents are going round, the badge of mourning, 
this ‘‘ husband,” comes in for an equal share, as if it were the living husband. 
A Chippeway mother, on losing her child, prepares an image of it in the best man- 
ner she is able, and dresses it as she did her living child, and fixes it in the kind of 
cradle I have referred to, and goes through the ceremonies of nursing it as if it were 
alive, by dropping little particles of food in the direction of its mouth, and giving it 
of whatever the living child partook. This ceremony also is generally observed for a 
year. 
Figure 32 represents the Chippewa widow holding in her arms the 
substitute for the dead husband. 
The substitution of a reminder for the dead husband, made from rags, 
furs, and other articles, is not confined alone to the Chippewas, other 
tribes having the same custom. In some instances the widows are 
obliged to carry around with them, for a variable period, a bundle con- 
taining the bones of the deceased consort. 
Similar observances, according to Bancroft,* were followed by some 
of the Central American tribes of Indians, those of the Sambos and Mos- 
quitos being as follows : 
The widow was bound to supply the grave of her husband for a year, after which she 
took up the bones and carried them with her for another year, at last placing them 
upon the roof of her house, and then only wasshe allowed to marry again. 
*Nat. Races of Pacific States, 1874, vol. i, pp. 731, 744. 
