NELSON] MEMORIAL BOARDS—SHADES 319 
the top of two upright posts. To the middle of these were pinned from 
two to three wooden maskoids, representing human faces with inlaid 
ivory eyes and mouths; from holes or pegs at the ears hung small 
strings of beads, such as the villagers wear, and below the masks were 
bead necklaces, some of the latter being very valuable from the Eskimo 
point of view. The accompanying illustration (figure 105), from a sketch 
made on the spot, shows two of these maskoids. The graveyard at this 
place was very curious, haviug a large number of maskoids and images 
with ewious ornamentation, but I was unable to remain long enough 
to give it a thorough examination. 
I was informed that the graveyards of the villages on the Kuskokwim, 
below Kolmakof Redoubt, are full of remarkable images of carved 
wood. One was described 
to me as being roofed 
with wooden slabs, and 
cousisted of a life-size 
figure, with round face, 
narrow slits for eyes, and 
four hands like a Hindoo 
idol. Two of the hands 
held a tin plate each for 
votive offerings, and the 
body was dressed in a 
new white shirt and bore 
elaborate bead orna- 
ments. The abundance 
of carved figures in the 
graveyards of this dis- 
trict, as was noted also 
among those of the adja- 
cent Tinné of the lower 
Yukon, is very remarka- 
ble, and their use does 
not extend northward of the Yukon in a single instance, so far as could 
be learned. : 
On lower Kuskokwim river the Eskimo believe that the shade of a 
male stays with the body until the fifth day after his death; the shade 
of a female remains with the body for four days. On the Yukon and 
among the Eskimo to the north the shades of men and women alike 
are believed to remain with the body four days after death. Through- 
out this region the villagers abstain from all work on the day of the 
death, and in many places the day following is similarly observed. 
None of the relatives of the deceased must do any work during the 
entire time in which the shade is believed to remain with the body. 
Along the coast north of St Michael there is much less elaboration in 
the mode of burial. On the beach near Cape Nome, on the northert 
Fic. 105—Monument board at a Big-lake grave. 
