168 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 194 



rounded themselves with many individual rules of conduct for guests 

 in the lodge. This limited the activities of people associating with 

 them and, like several outstanding male medicine men surrounded by 

 these many rules, people tended to fear, respect, and avoid them. 

 In this sense they resembled in their social position males possessing 

 imique and special mysterious supernatural powers. Berdaches 

 tended to disappear once warfare had ceased and their ceremonial 

 system had collapsed. 



LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH 



Whether a doctor was called in when a member of the household 

 became ill was largely a family matter. When it was known that 

 an individual possessed ceremonial rights dealing with some common- 

 place illness, such an individual would normally be called in and paid 

 for his services. In general, it would seem that the household more 

 commonly relied on the supernatural powers of its own members at 

 first. For most illnesses, help was not solicited beyond the immed iate 

 household and other near relatives. If a doctor was called in and 

 agreed to assist after a preliminary examination, the price for his 

 services being already determined, and it was evident that the patient 

 would not recover, it was customary to ask the doctor to remain 

 until death and to give comfort to the sick person. This was 

 especially true when the doctor belonged to the sick person's father's 

 clan for the father's clansmen had particular roles to perform at the 

 death of their sons and daughters. Many individuals never sought 

 aid of a doctor as they had faith in their own ceremonial bundles to 

 carry them through life. 



Most people reaching middle age and older had the clothing they 

 were to be put away in set aside and ready for the moment of death. 

 Since many lived many years after initial preparation of their clothing, 

 from time to time they would substitute new items, and either wear 

 out or give away those which they formerly had kept. Each individual 

 at some time also indicated the person who was to "bring the robe" and 

 had instructed him or her on how his body was to be prepared and 

 the manner of disposal that was to be employed. Some individuals 

 long outlived those first selected and named new ones throughout 

 the years. 



In the event of the iUness of a young married person, it was customary 

 to return to the mother's lodge. In the case of a young married man 

 it was rather difficult to look after him in a lodge with parents-in-law 

 since the young man's brothers and sisters would be the ones most 

 concerned about his welfare. Thus a young man when iU would 

 return to his mother's lodge where those coming in to look after him 



