MOUKNTNTG— CHIPPEWAS. 91 



strained joy had a few hours before prevailed. This fearful mourning 

 lasted until evening of the next day. * * * 



"A herald having been dispatched to our other villages to acquaint 

 them with the death of our head chief, and request them to assemble at 

 the Rose Bud, in order to meet our village and devote themselves to a 

 general time of mourning, there met, in conformity with this summons, over 

 ten thousand Crows at the place indicated. Such a scene of disorderly, 

 vociferous mourning no imagination can conceive nor any pen portray. 

 Long Hair cut off a large roll of his hair, a thing he was never known to do 

 before. The cutting and hacking of human flesh exceeded all my previous 

 experience; fingers were dismembered as readily as twigs, and blood was 

 poured out like water. Many of the warriors would cut two gashe& nearly 

 the entire length of their arm ; then, separating the skin from the flesh at one 

 end, would grasp it in their other hand, and rip it asunder to the shoulder. 

 Others would carve various devices upon their breasts and shoulders, and 

 raise the skin in the same manner to make the scars show to advantage 

 after the wound was healed. Some of their mutilations were ghastly, and 

 my heart sickened to look at them, but they would not appear to receive 

 any pain from them." 



From I. L Mahan, United States Indian Agent for the Chippewas of 

 Lake Superior, Red Cliff, Wisconsin, the following detailed account of 

 mourning has been received : 



"There is probably no people that exhibit more sorrow and grief for 

 their dead than they. The young widow mourns the loss of her husband; 

 by day as by night she is heard silently sobbing ; she is a constant visitor 

 to the place of rest; with the greatest reluctance will she follow the raised 

 camp. The friends and relatives of the young mourner will incessantly 

 devise methods to distract her mind from the thought of her lost husband. 

 She refuses nourishment, but as nature is exhausted she is prevailed upon to 

 partake of food; the supply is scant, but on every occasion the best and largest 

 proportion is deposited upon the grave of her husband. In the mean time 

 the female relatives of the deceased have, according to custom, submitted 

 to her charge a parcel made up of different cloths ornamented with bead- 

 work and eagles' feathers, which she is charged to keep by her side — the 



