166 THE YOKAIA, ETC. 
wore white dresses trimmed heavily with black velvet. The stripes were 
about three inches wide, some plain and others edged like saw-teeth. This 
was an indication of their mourning for the dead chief in whose honor they 
had prepared that style of dancing. Strings of Haliotis and Pachydesma 
shell-beads encircled their necks, and around their waists were belts heavily 
loaded with the same material. Their head-dresses were more showy than 
those of the men. The head was encireled with a bandeau of otters’ or 
beavers’ fur, to which were attached short wires standing out in all directions, 
with glass and shell beads strung on them, and at the tips little feather flags 
and quail plumes. Surmounting all was a pyramidal plume of feathers, 
black, gray, and scarlet, the top generally being a bright scarlet bunch, 
raving and tossing very beautifully. All these combined gave their heads 
a very brilliant and spangled appearance. 
The first day the dance was slow and funereal, in honor of the Yokaia 
chief who died a short time before. The music was mournful and simple, 
being a monotonous chant, in which only two tones were used, accompanied 
with a rattling of split sticks and stamping on a hollow slab. 
The second day the dance was more lively on the part of the men, the 
music was better, employing airs which had a greater range of tone, and 
the women generally joined in the chorus. The dress of the women was 
not so beautiful, as they appeared in ordinary calico. 
The third day, if observed in accordance with Indian custom, the danc- 
ing was still more lively and the proceedings more gay, just as the coming 
home from a Christian funeral is apt to be much more jolly than the going 
out. 
A Yokaia widow’s style of mourning is peculiar. In addition to the 
usual evidences of grief she mingles the ashes of her dead husband with 
pitch, making a white tar or unguent with which she smears a band about 
two inches wide all around the edge of the hair (which is previously cut 
off close to the head), so that at a little distance she appears to be wearing 
a white chaplet. 
It is their custom to “feed the spirits of the dead” for the space of one 
year by going daily to places which they were accustomed to frequent 
while living, where they sprinkle pinole upon the ground. A Yokaia mother 
who has lost her babe goes every day for a year to some place where her 
