86 BUEIAL SACRIFICE— TSINUK. 



the owner was placed near him. The Puget Sound Indians do not make 

 these tamahno-us boards, but they sometimes constructed effigies of their 

 chiefs, resembling the person as nearly as possible, dressed in his usual 

 costume, and wearing the articles of which he was fond. One of these, rep- 

 resenting the Skagit chief Sneestum, stood very conspicuously upon a high 

 bank on the eastern side of Whidbey Island. The figures observed by 

 Captain Clarke at the Cascades were either of this description or else the 

 carved posts which had ornamented the interior of the houses of the 

 deceased, and were connected with the superstition of the tamahno-us. The 

 most valuable articles of property were put into or hung up around the 

 grave, being first carefully rendered unserviceable, and the living family 

 were literally stripped to do honor to the dead. No little self-denial must 

 have been practiced in parting with articles so precious, but those interested 

 frequently had the least to say on the subject. The graves of women were 

 distinguished by a cup, a Kamas stick, or other implement of their occupa- 

 tion, and by articles of dress. 



"Slaves were killed in proportion to the rank and wealth of the deceased. 

 In some instances they were starved to death, or even tied to the dead body 

 and left to perish thus horribly. At present this practice has been almost 

 entirely given up, but till within a very few years it was not uncommon. 

 A case which occurred in 1850 has been already mentioned. Still later, in 

 1853, Toke, a Tsinuk chief living at Shoal water Bay, undertook to kill a 

 slave girl belonging to his daughter, who, in dying, had requested that this 

 might be done. The woman fled, and was found by some citizens in the 

 woods half starved. Her master attempted to reclaim her, but was soundly 

 thrashed and warned against another attempt. 



" It was usual in the case of chiefs to renew or repair for a considerable 

 length of time the materials and ornaments of the burial-place. With the 

 common class of persons family pride or domestic affection was satisfied 

 with the gathering together of the bones after the flesh had decayed and 

 wrapping them in a new mat. The violation of the grave was always 

 regarded as an offense of the first magnitude and provoked severe revenge. 

 Captain Belcher remarks: 'Great secrecy is observed in all their burial 

 ceremonies, partly from fear of Europeans, and as among themselves they 



