186 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
On returning from the grave the property of the deceased is destroyed, the cocoa 
palms being cut down, and all who have taken part in the funeral undergo a lustra- 
tion in the river. Relatives cut off the hair, the men leaving a ridge along the middle 
from the nape of the neck to the forehead. Widows, according to some old writers, 
after supplying the grave with food for a year take up the bones and carry them on the 
back in the daytime, sleeping with them at night for another year, after which they 
are placed at the door or upon the house-top. On the anniversary of deaths, friends of 
the deceased hold a feast, called seekroe, at which large quantities of liquor are drained 
to his memory. Squier, who witnessed the ceremonies on an occasion of this kind, 
says that males and females were dressed in ule cloaks fantastically painted black and 
white, while their faces were correspondingly streaked with red and yellow, and they 
performed a slow walk around, prostrating themselves at intervals and calling loudly 
upon the dead and tearing the ground with their hands. At no other time is the de- 
parted referred to, the very mention of his name being superstitiously avoided. Some 
tribes extend a thread from the house of death to the grave, carrying it in a straight 
line over every obstacle. Fréebel states that among the Woolwas all property of the 
deceased is buried with him, and that both husband and wife cut the hair and burn 
the hut on the death of either, placing a gruel of maize upon the graye for a certain 
time. 
Benson* gives the following account of the Choctaws’ funeral cere- 
monies, embracing the disposition of the body, mourning feast and 
dance : 
Their funeral is styled by them “the last ery.” 
When the husband dies the friends assemble, prepare the grave, and place the 
corpse in it, but do not fillit up. The gun, bow and arrows, hatchet, and knife are 
deposited in the grave. Poles are planted at the head and the foot, upon which flags 
are placed; the grave is then inclosed by pickets driven in the ground. The funeral 
ceremozies now begin, the widow being the chief mourner. At night and morning 
she will go to the grave and pour forth the most piteous cries and wailings. It is not 
important that any other member of the family should take any very active part in 
the ‘‘cry,” though they do participate to some extent. 
The widow wholly neglects her toilet, while she daily goes to the grave during one 
eutire moon from the date when the death occurred. On the evening of the last day 
of the moon the friends all assemble at the cabin of the disconsolate widow, bringing 
provisions for a sumptuous feast, which consists of corn and jerked beef boiled to- 
gether in a kettle. While the supper is preparing the bereaved wife goes to the grave 
and pours out, with unusual yehemence, her bitter wailings and lamentations. When 
the food is thoroughly cooked the kettle is taken from the fire and placed in the center 
of the cabin, and the friends gather around it, passing the buffalo-horn spoon from 
hand to hand and from mouth to mouth till all have been bountifully supplied. While 
supper is being served, two of the oldest men of the company quietly withdraw and 
go to the grave and fill it up, taking down the flags. All then join in a dance, which 
not unfrequently is continued till morning; the widow does not fail to unite in the 
dance, and to contribute her part to the festivities of the occasion. This is the “last 
ery,” the days of mourning are ended, and the widow is now ready to form another 
matrimonial alliance. The ceremonies are precisely the same when aman has lost 
his wife, and they are only slightly varied when any other member of the family has 
died. (Slaves were buried without ceremonies. ) 
* Life Among the Choctaws, 1860, p. 294. 
