MALLERY. ] GRAVE POSTS. 521 
small lines, with ball attached, are ornamental appendages consisting 
of strips of cloth or skin, with charms, or, Some ues) tassels. 
g. Grave post, bearing rude illus- 3% 
trations of the weapons or implements 
used by the deceased during his life. 
h. A grave scaffold, containing 
adult. Besides the ornamental ap- 
pendages, as in f preceding, there is 
a “Shaman stick” erected over the 
box containing the corpse as a mark 
of good wishes of a sorrowing sur- 
vivor. See object a,in Fig. 724. 
Schooleraft (m) gives a good ac- 
count, with illustration, of the burial 
posts used by the Sioux and Chippe- 
was. It has been quoted so fre- 
quently that it is not reproduced 
here. The most notable feature con- 
nected with the posts is that the to- 
tems depicted on them are reversed, 
to signify the death of the persons 
buried. 
Fig. 728 represents the grave post 
of a Menomoni Indian of the bear 
totem. The stick is a piece of pine 
board 24 inches wide at the top, 
gradually narrowing down to a point; 
three-fourths of an inch thick, and 
about 2 feet long. On one side are 
two sets of characters, the oldest 
being incised with a sharp-pointed 
nail, while over these are a later set 
of drawings made with red ocher, rep- 
resented in the illustration by shad- 
ing. The figure of the bear, drawn 
with head to the ground, denotes the 
totem of which the deceased was a 
member, the remaining incised fig- 
ures relating to some exploits the sig- 
nification of which was not known. 
The red marks were put upon the 
stick at the time of the holding of a 
memorial service, when the father of 
the deceased furnished a feast to the 
medicine priests just previous to his 
being received into the society of Fig, 728.—Menomoni grave post. 
