314 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
During the first day after the death everyone near the village was 
said to be soft and nerveless, with very slight power of resistance, so 
that any evil influence could injure him easily; but the next day the 
people said they were a little harder than before, and on the third day 
the body was becoming frozen, so that they were approaching hardi- 
ness again. 
On the evening of the second day the men in every house in the vil- 
lage took their urine buckets and, turning them bottom upward, went 
about the house, thrusting the bottom of the vessel into every corner 
and into the smokehole and the doorway. This, it was said, was done to 
drive out the shade if it should be in the house, and from this custom 
the second day of mourning is called @-hlun/-ig-ut, or ‘the bottom day.” 
After this was done and the people were ready to retire for the night 
every man took a long grass stem and, bending it, stuck both ends into 
the ground in a conspicuous place in the middle of the doorway. They 
said this would frighten the spirit off, for should it come about and 
try to enter the house it would see this bent 
grass, and, believing it to be a snare, would 
go away, fearing. to be caught. On the 
third morning, before eating, every man, 
woman, and child in the village bathed in 
urine, which cleansed them of any evil that 
might have gathered about their persons, 
and also rendered their flesh firm, so that 
they were hardy and able to withstand the 
ordinary influence of the shade. 
On the lower Yukon, below Ikogmut, the 
following customs were observed: 
These people are very averse to havy- 
ing a dead body in the house, and the 
corpse is placed in the grave box at the earliest possible moment. 
This is so marked that the relatives frequently dress the person in the 
new burial clothing while he is dying in order that he may be removed 
immediately after death. After death the body is placed in a sitting 
posture on the floor; the knees are drawn up and the feet back, so that 
the knees rest against the chest and the heels against the hips; then 
the head is forced down between the knees until the back of the neck 
is on a line with the tops of the knees; the arms are drawn around 
encircling the legs above the ankles and just under the forehead. It 
is then tied with strong cords to hoid it in this position and drawn up 
through the smoke hole in the roof and carried to the graveyard, where 
it is placed upon the top of an old grave box while one is being made 
for it. Figure 101 illustrates the position of the body ready for burial. 
When the box is ready, usually the next day, the body is placed in it 
upon a deerskin bed, while other deerskins or cloth covers are thrown 
over it. All of the small tools of the deceased are placed in the box 
Fic. 101—Position of burial of the dead 
on the lower Yukon. 
