140 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



U'ife. better advised than the others, did not wish to follow liini. and Ix'iian to 

 weep when they wished to oblige her to acconi])aiiy Iut hnsbnnd. Mr. de 

 Montigni, who has left this country to go to Siani," being informed of what 

 ttoey were accustomed to do, made them promise not to put anyone to death. 

 As a pledge of their word they gave him a little female slave, whom they had 

 resolved to put to death but for liis prohibition ; but to keep their cursed custom 

 without its being perceived, the woman chief, whom they call Ouachil Tamail, 

 Suu woman (who is always the sister and not the wife of the great chief), per- 

 suaded him to retire to a distant village so as not to have his head split with 

 the noise they would make in a ceremony where all were to take part. :Mr. 

 de Montigni, not susi)ecting anything, believed her and withdrew, but in his 

 absence they put to death those wliom they believed to be necessary to go to 

 cook and wait on the chief in the other world.'' 



It happened in our time that the grand chief tainess Noble ^ being dead, we 

 saw the burial ceremony, which is indeed the most hon-ible tragedy that one 

 can witness. It made myself and all my comrades tremble with horror. She 

 was a chief tainess Noble in lier own right. Her husband, who was not at all 

 noble, was innnediately strangled by the first boy she had had by him, to accom- 

 pany his wife into the great village, wliere they believe that they go. After 

 such a fine beginning they put outside of tlie cabin of the great chief all that 

 was there. As is customary they made a kind of triumplial car in the cabin, 

 where tliey placed the dead woman and her strangled husband. A moment later, 

 they brought 12 little dead infants, who had been strangled, and whom they 

 placed around the dead woman. It was their fathers and mothers who brought 

 them there, by order of the eldest of the dead chief tainess's children, and who 

 then, as grand chief, commands to have die to honor the funeral rites of his 

 mother as many persons as he wishes. They had 14 scaffolds prepai-ed in the 

 public square, which they ornamented with branches of trees and with cloth 

 covered with pictures. On each scaffold a man placed himself who was going 

 to accompany the defunct to the other world. They stood on these scaffolds 

 surrounded by their nearest relatives; they are sometimes warned more than 

 ten years before their death. It is an honor for their relatives. Ordinarily 

 they have offered to die during the life of the defunct, for the good will which 

 they bear him, and they themselves have tied the cord with which they are 

 strangled. They are dressed in their finest clothing, with a large shell in the right 

 hand, and the nearest relative — for exami)le, if it is the father of a family who 

 dies, his eldest son — walks behind him bearing the cord under his arm and a 

 war club in his right hand. He makes a frightful cry which they call the death 

 cry. Then all these unfortunate victims every quarter of an hour descend 

 from their scaffolds and unite in the middle of the square, where they dance 

 together before the temple and before the house of the dead female chief, when 

 they remount their scaffolds to resume their places. They are very much re- 

 spected tliat day, and each one has five servants. Their faces are all reddened 

 W'ith vernnlion. For my part I have thouglit that it was in ordt>r not to let 

 the fear that they might have of their approaching death be apparent. 



At the end of four days they begin the ceremony of " the march of the bodies." 

 The fathers and the mothers who liad brought their dead children took them 

 and held them in their hands; the oldest of these children did not appear to be 

 more than three years old. They placed them to right and left of the entrance to 

 the cabin of the dead female chief. The 14 victims destined to be strangled 

 repaired there in the .same order; the chiefs and the relatives of the dead woman 



" He went to China. 



* Gravier in .Tes. Uel.. f,xv, 140-143. 



* I. e., the great female Sun. 



