BOAS] BURIAL CUSTOMS. Qlg 



least sign of fear or unwillingness to die. I rememlDer a young girl 

 wlio sent for me a few hours before lier death and asked me to give 

 her some tobacco and bread, which sBe wanted to take to her mother, 

 who had died a few weeks before. 



Only the relatives are allowed to touch the body of the deceased. 

 They clothe it or wrajj it in deerskins and bury it at once. In for- 

 mer times they always built a tomb, at least when death occurred in 

 the summer. From its usual dimensions one would suppose that the 

 body was buried with the legs doubled up, for all of them are too 

 short for grown persons. If the person to be buried is young, his 

 feet are placed in the direction of the rising sun, those of the aged 

 in the opposite direction. According to Lyon the Iglulirmiut bury 

 half grown children with the feet towards the southeast, young men 

 and women with the feet towards the south, and middle aged per- 

 sons with the feet towards the southwest. This agrees with the 

 fact that the graves in Cumberland Sound do not all lie east and 

 west. The tomb is always vaulted, as any stone or piece of snow 

 resting upon the body is believed to be a burden to the soul of the 

 deceased. The man's hunting imi^lements and other utensils are 

 placed by the side of his grave; the pots, the lamps, knives, &c., by 

 the side of that of the woman; toys, by that of a child. Hall (I, p. 

 103) observed in a grave a small kettle hung up over a lamp. These 

 objects are held in great respect and are never removed, at least 

 as long as it is known to whose grave they belong. Sometimes 

 models of implements are used for this purpose instead of the objects 

 themselves. Figure 536 represents a model of a lamp found in a 

 grave of Cumberland Sound. Nowadays the Eskimo place the body 

 in a box, if they can procure one, or cover it very slightly with stones 

 or snow. It is strange that, though the ceremonies of burying are 

 very strictly attended to and though they take care to give the dead 

 their belongings, they do not heed the opening of the graves by dogs 

 or wolves and the devouring of the bodies and do not attempt to 

 recover them when the graves are invaded by animals. 



Fig. 53C. Model of lamp from a grave in Cumberland Sound. (Museum f ur Volkerkunde, Berlin.) 



The body must be carried to the place of burial by the nearest rela- 

 tives, a few others only accompanying it. For this purpose they 

 rarely avail themselves of a sledge, as it cannot be used afterward, 

 but must be left with the deceased. Dogs are never allowed to drag 

 the sledge on such an occasion. After returning from the burial the 

 relatives must lock themselves up in the old hut for three days, 

 during which they mourn the loss of the deceased. During this time 



