320 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT (ETH ANN. 18 
shore of Norton sound, several summer fishing camps were located, and 
among these were a few rude graves made by building up slight 
inclosures of drift logs and covering them with similar material. At 
one place in this vicinity was a cone-shape inclosure made by standing 
drift logs on end in a circle eight or nine feet in diameter, with their 
upper ends meeting. From the top of this projected a long pole, and 
inside was a wooden box containing the remains of a shaman, swung 
by cords midway between the ground and the top of the structure. 
This man, I was told, had caused himself to be burned alive two years 
before the time of my visit, in the expectation of returning to life with 
much stronger powers than he had previously possessed; but the hope 
of the shaman failed to become realized at the appointed time, so his 
body was inclosed in a box and the cone of driftwood was erected over it. 
Near the village at Cape Nome was a large burial box (figure 106) 
supported about 
five feet above the 
ground on four 
posts. This box 
was made of rude, 
SSS | | hewn planks cut 
i SS from drift logs, and 
Ce i was said to be the 
fa grave of a noted 
shaman who could 
breathe fire from 
his mouth. The 
other graves about 
the village at this 
cape were roughly 
made of drift logs, 
with the remains 
of totem marks, 
stones, and imple- 
ments about them, very much like the drift-log burial places near St 
Michael, previously described. 
On Sledge island, in Bering strait, I examined several graves on a 
sharp rocky slope of theisland just above the village. These consisted 
of shallow pits among the rocks, surrounded by rude lines of stones, 
forming rims, over which were laid drift logs held in place by heavy 
stones. No implements or other marks of distinction were observed 
about these graves, possibly on account of their age. 
In July, 1881, I climbed the rocky hill above the Eskimo village at 
East cape, Siberia, and found the graves located just above and back 
of the houses among the rocks covering a long ridge. They were very 
rude, consisting of a shallow pit formed by taking out the stones and 
laying them to form a rectangular inclosure 6 or 8 feet long and 2 or 3 
in ti | 
i a i 
Mee 1 
Fic. 106—Grave box at Cape Nome. 
