952 



MOURNING 



[b. a. e. 



body. These signs of mourning are gen- 

 erally made immediately at the death, and 

 are renewed at the burial and again when 

 the mourning feast takes place. 



In some tribes it is customary when 

 anyone dies for a priest or other respected 

 person to stand outside the dwelling in 

 which the deceased lies and, with hand 

 uplifted, proclaim in a loud voice to the 

 spirits of the kindred that their kinsman 

 has started on his way to join them; 

 meanwhile swift runners speed through 

 the tribe, spreading the news of the death 

 among the living. 



More or less ceremony usually attends 

 the preparation of the body for burial. 

 Among the Hopi wailing takes jjlace dur- 

 ing the washing of the body. In some 

 tribes the characteristic tril^al moccasin 

 must be put on the feet of the dead by a 

 member of a certain clan, in order that 

 the kindred may be safely reached. In 

 others the face must be ceremonially 

 painted for the journey and the best 

 clothing put on, so that the dead may go 

 forth properly attired and honored. Per- 

 sonal belongings are placed with the 

 corpse. On the N. W. coast, after the 

 body has been arrayed it is propped up 

 at the rear of the house and surrounded 

 by the property, and the relatives and 

 mourners pass by the remains in token of 

 respect. The conventional sign of mourn- 

 ing ariiong the Salish, according to Hill- 

 Tout, is the severing of the hair of the 

 surviving relatives, who dispose of it in 

 various ways according to the tribe — by 

 burning it to prevent its falling into the 

 hands of a sorcerer; by burying it where 

 vegetation is dense, thus insuring long 

 life and strength; by putting it away for 

 final burial at their own death; by cast- 

 ing it into running water, and by fastening 

 it to the branches on the eastern side of a 

 red-fir tree. Among the Hopi wailing is 

 confined to the day of the death and to 

 anniversaries of that event. When a 

 number die from an epidemic a date is 

 officially fixed for the mourning anniver- 

 sary, and this is kept even when it inter- 

 cepts a festival or other rite. Professional 

 mourners are employed among the Zuiii, 

 Hopi, Mohave, and neighboring tribes. 

 The observance of the anniversary of a 

 death is common. Among some tribes it 

 is observed with great ceremony; in all 

 cases the guests are served with food, and 

 gifts are made to them in honor of the 

 dead. There are differences observed in 

 mourning for a man or a woman and for 

 an adult or a child. Among the Dakota 

 the widow passed around the circle of the 

 tribe, each circuit standing for a promise 

 to remain single during a year. The gen- 

 eral sign of widowhood is loosening the 

 hair and cutting it short in a line with the 

 ears. It was the wife's duty to light a 



fire for four nights on her husband's 

 grave and watch that it did not die out 

 before dawn. She had to wail at sunrise 

 and sunset, eat little, and remain more or 

 less secluded. The length of her seclusion 

 varied in different triVjes from a few weeks 

 or months to two years. At the expira- 

 tion of the period relatives of her former 

 husband brought her gifts and bade her 

 return to her former pleasures. She was 

 then free to marry again. In some tribes 

 wives, slaves, or horses and dogs were 

 formerly slain at the death of a man, for 

 it was the general belief that relations of 

 all kinds which were maintained on earth 

 would continue in the dwelling place of 

 si^irits. 



It was usual for the tribe to abstain 

 from festivities when a death occurred in 

 the community. The various societies 

 omitted their meetings, and general si- 

 lence was observed. In some tribes all 

 the i)eople wailed at sunrise and sunset. 

 Where these .general observances of sor- 

 row were the custom, the mourners were 

 visited by the leading men a few days af- 

 ter death, when the pipe was offered, and 

 after smoking, the family of the deceased 

 gave a feast, a signal for the tribe to re- 

 sume its wonted pleasures. 



The black paint that was put upon 

 men, women, and children of some tribes 

 as a sign of mourning might not be washed 

 off, but must be worn until it disappeared 

 by some other means. The announcement 

 of the mourning feast was generally made 

 in a formal way at the close of the burial 

 ceremony. Among most of the Plains 

 tribes black paint was a sign of victory 

 and mourners refrained entirely from 

 paint or other adornment. 



The customs of mourning seem to have 

 a twofold aspect — one relating to the spirit 

 of the deceased, the other to the surviv- 

 ing relatives and friends. This dual 

 character is clearly revealed in a custom 

 that obtained among the Omaha and cog- 

 nate tribes: On the death of a man or a 

 woman who was respected in the com- 

 munity, the young men, friends of the 

 deceased, met at a short distance from 

 the lodge of the dead and made two inci- 

 sions in their left arms so as to leave a 

 looi? of skin. Through this loop was 

 passed a small willow twig, with leaves 

 left on one end; then, with their blood 

 dripping ujion the willow leaves, holding 

 a willow stem in each hand, they walked 

 in single file to the lodge, and, standing 

 abreast in a long line, they sang there the 

 tribal song to the dead, beating the wil- 

 low stems together to the rhythm of the 

 song. At the sound of the music, a near 

 relative came forth from the lodge and, 

 beginning at one end of the line, pulled 

 out the blood-stained twigs from the left 

 arm of each singer, and laid a hand on 



