22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 71 



body, crying out all the while, ' Arise, arise ! Come with us !' ... As 

 soon as these women had gone through their part of the ceremony, 

 which took up about fifteen minutes, the six men whom they had 

 interrupted and who had remained at the distance of about five feet 

 from the corpse, again stepped forward and did their duty. They 

 let down the coffin into the earth, and laid two thin poles of about 

 four inches diameter, from which the bark had been taken off, length- 

 ways, and close together over the grave, after which they retired." 

 The husband, SMngask, then came slowly forward and walked over 

 the poles, and continued on to the prairie. Then a " painted post, 

 on which were drawn various figures, emblematic of the deceased's 

 situation in life and of her having been the wife of a valiant warrior, 

 was brought by two men and delivered to a third, a man of note, 

 who placed it in such a manner that it rested on the coffin at the head 

 of the grave, and took great care that a certain part of the drawings 

 should be exposed to the east, or rising of the sun; then while he 

 held the post erect and properly situated, some women filled up the 

 grave with hoes, and having placed dry leaves and pieces of bark 

 over it, so that none of the fresh ground was visible, they retired, 

 .and some men, with timbers fitted before hand for the purpose, 

 enclosed the grave about breast-high, so as to secure it from the 

 approach of the wild beasts." 



After this food was prepared and passed about, then the presents 

 were distributed, the many things which had been carried by the two 

 men in the rear of the procession. Those who had rendered as- 

 sistance were given the most valuable and highly prized pieces, but 

 no one was omitted. Articles to the value of about $200 were thus 

 given away. Men, women, and children alike were remembered. 

 (Heckewelder, (1), pp. 264-270.) At dusk after the burial, a kettle 

 of food was placed upon the gi'ave, and this was renewed every 

 evening for three weeks, after which time, so they thought, food 

 was no longer required by the spirit. 



When an Indian died away from his village, so Heckewelder wrote 

 (op. cit., p. 270), "great care is taken that the grave be well for- 

 tified with posts and logs laid upon it, that the wolves may be pre- 

 vented from getting at the corpse; when time and circumstances 

 do not permit this, as, for instance, when the Indians are traveling, 

 the body is inclosed in the bark of trees and thus laid in the grave. 

 When a death takes place at their hunting camps, they make a 

 kind of coffin as well as they can, or put a cover over the body, so that 

 the earth may not sink on it, and then inclose the grave with a fence 

 of poles." These scattered burials, made away from settlements, 

 readily explain the occurrence of the isolated graves often found at 

 the present time, and few if any objects of a lasting nature were 

 deposited with the bodies. 



