190 MORTUARY CUSTOMS OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
narrow aperture just sufficient to carry a corpse through. The council overruled, and 
little George, instead of being slain, was conveyed living to the dead-honse about 
sunset. The dead were piled on each side, leaving a narrow aisle between, and 
on one of these was placed the deceased boy; and, bound tightly till the purple, quiy- 
ering flesh puffed above the strong bark cords, that he might die very soon, the liy- 
ing was placed by his side, his face to his till the very lips met, and extending along 
limb to limb and foot to foot, and nestled down into his couch of rottenness, to im- 
pede his breathing as far as possible and smother his cries. 
Bancroft* states that— 
The slaves sacrificed at the graves by the Aztecs and Tarascos were selected from 
various trades and professions, and took with them the most cherished articles of the 
master and the implements of their trade wherewith to supply his wants— 
while among certain of the Central American tribe death was voluntary, 
wives, attendants, slaves, friends, and relations sacrificing themselves 
by means of a vegetable poison. 
To the mind of a savage man unimpressed with the idea that self- 
murder is forbidden by Jaw or custom, there can seem no reason why, 
if he so wills, he should not follow his beloved chief, master, or friend 
to the “happy other world;” and when this is remembered we need not 
feel astonished as we read of accounts in which scores of self-immola- 
tions are related. It is quite likely that among our own people similar 
customs might be followed did not the law and society frown down 
such proceedings. In fact the daily prints occasionally inform us, not- 
withstanding the restraints mentioned, that sacrifices do take place on 
the occasion of the death of a beloved one. 
FEASTS. 
In Beltrami{ an account is given of the funeral ceremonies of one of 
the tribes of the west, including a description of the feast which took 
place before the body was consigned to its final resting-place : 
I was a spectator of the funeral ceremony performed in honor of the manes of Cloudy 
Weather’s son-in-law, whose body had remained with the Sioux, and was suspected to 
have furnished one of their repasts. What appeared not a little singular and indeed 
ludicrous in this funeral comedy was the contrast exhibited by the terrific lamenta- 
tions and yells of one part of the company while the others were singing and dancing 
with all their might. 
At another funeral ceremony for a member of the Grand Medicine, and at which as 
a man of another world I was permitted to attend, the same practice occurred. But ati 
the feast which took place on that occasion an allowance was served up for the deceased 
out of every article of which it consisted, while others were beating, wounding, and 
torturing themselves, and letting their blood flow both over the dead man and his 
provisions, thinking possibly that this was the most palatable seasoning for the latter 
which they could possibly supply. His wife furnished out an entertainment present 
* Nat. Races of Pacif. States, 1875, vol iii, p. 513. 
t Pilgrimage, 1828, vol. ii, p. 443. 
