96 DAjSTCE for the dead. 



"An occasional and very singular figure was called the 'dance for the 

 dead.' It was known as the O-he'-wa." It was danced by the women 

 alone. The music was entirely vocal, a select band of singers being sta- 

 tioned in the center of the room. To the songs for the dead which they, 

 sang the dancers joined in chorus. It was plaintive and mournful music. 

 This dance was usually separate from all councils and the onl} r dance of the 

 occasion. It commenced at dusk or soon after and continued until towards 

 morning, when the shades of the dead who were believed to be present and 

 participate in the dance were supposed to disappear. This dance was had 

 whenever a family which had lost a member called for it, which was usually 

 a year after the event. In the spring and fall it was often given for all the 

 dead indiscriminately, who were believed then to revisit the earth and join 

 in the dance." 



The interesting account which now follows is by Stephen Powers,* 

 and relates to the Yo-kai-a of California, containing other matters of impor- 

 tance pertaining to burial. 



"I paid a visit to their camp four miles below Ukiah, and finding there 

 a unique kind of assembly-house, desired to enter and examine it, but was 

 not allowed to do so until I had gained the confidence of the old sexton 

 by a few friendly words and the tender of a silver half dollar. The pit of 

 it was about 50 feet in diameter and 4 or 5 feet deep, and it was so heavily 

 roofed with earth that the interior was damp and somber as a tomb. It 

 looked like a low tumulus, and was provided with a tunnel-like entrance 

 about 10 feet long and 4 feet high, and leading down to a level with the 

 floor of the pit. The mouth of the tunnel was closed with brush, and 

 the venerable sexton would not remove it until he had slowly and devoutly 

 paced several times to and fro before the entrance. 



"Passing in I found the massive roof supported by a number of peeled 

 poles painted white and ringed with black and ornamented with rude 

 devices. The floor was covered thick and green with sprouting wheat, 

 which had been scattered to feed the spirit of the captain of the tribe, lately 

 deceased. Not long afterward a deputation of the Senel came up to con- 

 dole with the Yo-kai-a on the loss of their chief, and a dance or series of dances 



* Cont. to North American Ethnol., 1878, iii, p. 164. 



