56 CREMATION— CALIFORNIA. 



thought of rotting in the dismal grave, for it is the one passion of his super- 

 stition to think of the soul of his departed friend set free and purified by 

 the swift purging heat of the flames, not dragged down to be clogged and 

 bound in the moldering body, but borne up in the soft, warm chariots of the 

 smoke toward the beautiful sun, to bask in his warmth and light, and then 

 to fly away to the Happy Western Land. What wonder if the Indian 

 sin-inks with unspeakable horror from the thought of burying his friend's 

 soul! — of pressing and ramming down with pitiless clods that inner some- 

 thing which once took such delight in the sweet light of the sun ! What 

 wonder if it takes years to persuade him to do otherwise and follow our cus- 

 tom ! What wonder if even then he does it with sad fears and misgivings ! 

 Why not let him keep his custom ! In the gorgeous landscapes and balmy 

 climate of California and India incremation is as natural to the savage as it 

 is for him to love the beauty of the sun. Let the vile Esquimaux and the 

 frozen Siberian bury their dead if they will ; it matters little, the earth is the 

 same above as below; or to them the bosom of the earth may seem even the 

 better ; but in California do not blame the savage if he recoils at the thought 

 of going under ground ! This soft, pale halo of the lilac hills — ah, let him 

 console himself if he will with the belief that his lost friend enjoys it still ! 

 The narrator concluded by saying that they destroyed full $500 worth of 

 property. ' The blankets,' said he with a fine Californian scorn of such 

 absurd insensibility to a good bargain, ' the blankets that the American 

 offered him $16 for were not worth half the money.' 



"After death the Se-ndl hold that bad Indians return into coyotes. 

 Others fall off a bridge which all souls must traverse, or are hooked off by a 

 raging bull at the further end, while the good escape across. Like the 

 Yokaia and the Konkan, they believe it necessary to nourish the spirits of 

 the departed for the space of a year. This is generally done by a squaw, 

 who takes pinole in her blanket, repairs to the scene of the incremation, or 

 to places hallowed by the memory of the dead, where she scatters it over 

 the ground, meantime rocking her body violently to and fro in a dance 

 and chanting the following chorus : 



Ilcl-lcl-li-ly, 



Hel-lel-lo, 



Hel-lel-lu. 



