232 BELIEFS AND USAGES OF CHICKASAW (ETH. ANN. 44 
The following is from Cushman: 
The ancient Chickasaws, unlike the Choctaws, buried their dead soon after 
life became extinct; placing in the graye with the corpse, if a man, his clothes, 
war, and hunting implements, pipe and tobacco, and a few provisions; if a 
woman or child, the clothes and other little articles the deceased may have 
prized in life and a few proyisions. A Chickasaw widow mourned 12 full moons 
for her deceased husband, while the other relatives prolonged their mourning 
only three, at the close of which a special cry was appointed at night, which was 
kept up until the break of day; then the end of the hair of the mourners was 
clipped and a string handed to them, with which they tied up their hair, which 
had been permitted to hang loose over their shoulders from the death of their 
kindred to the end of the three moons, the appointed time for mourning. 
Suicide was sometimes committed by the ancient Chickasaws, but very seldom. 
When it was it was invariably done with their favorite instrument of death, 
the rifle.” 
The ancient Chickasaws, like the Choctaws, had their specified cries over the 
graves of their dead. At the day appointed, the relatives, friends, and neighbors 
assembled and one little group after another took their seats on the ground in 
e circle around the grave, then drew their shawls and blankets over their heads 
and commenced their doleful lamentations, which must be seen and heard to 
torm any just idea of the scene. The “cry” continued for several days and 
nights, then terminated with a feast; after which the name of the deceased was 
pronounced no more. The dead are with the past; for them how fruitless our 
despair, was their final and just conclusion.” 
While Cushman says nothing about burials in the house, Romans’s 
statement to that effect is confirmed by the personal experience of 
Hodgson, which he narrates as follows: 
I was told that they bury their dead in their houses. While getting a cup of 
coffee at Amubee’s, a full-blooded Chickasaw, a little negro girl, the only person 
about the house who could speak English, said, ‘‘ Master’s wife is lying behind 
you.” On looking round I saw nothing but a bed; when the little girl told me 
to look under it. When she observed that I was disappointed on perceiving 
nothing, she said: “ Mistress is buried there; but don’t speak loud, or master will 
ChYyswee 
To this may be added the experience of another traveler. One 
day in the year 1834, while journeying through the Chickasaw Nation 
Edwin G. Thomas heard a wailing noise about sundown in a south- 
easterly direction. ‘“ None of the crowd [who accompanied him| 
knew what it was, but a negro told us it was the Indians mourning 
for their dead. The Indians also came in[to] the house and 
mourned. We were told that they were buried in the house.” *! 
The memory of this form of burial was preserved down to modern 
times. Doctor Speck was told by his informants that— 
At the death of a member of the tribe all personal belongings were buried 
with the body beneath the floor of the house, the family continuing to live there. 
18 Cushman, Hist. Choc., Chick., and Natchez Inds., pp. 496-497. 
 Thid., p. 502. 
70 Hodgson, Jour. through N. A., p. 284. 
21 Narrative of Edwin G. Thomas, May 10, 1880, as quoted by Harry Warren in Publs. 
Miss. Hist. Soc., vol. vi11, p. 552. 
