854 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



As cremation preceded aerial deposit with the Haida, it is to be pre- 

 sumed that the forms of sepulture illustrated in Figs. 340 to 343 in- 

 clusive, from the Kaigaui villages, antedate in type those described by 

 Marchand. According to Lisiansky (1805) tbe same forms as described 

 by the latter were found amougst the Tlingit at Sitka, excepting that 

 the ashes were deposited iu stead of the corpse: 



The bodies here arebunied, and the ashes, together with the bones that remain uu- 

 consunied, deposited in wooden boxes, which are placed on pillars, that have differ- 

 ent figures painted and carved on them, according to the wealth of the deceased. 

 On taking possession of our new settlement [Sitka] we destroyed a hundred at least 

 of these, and I examined many of the boxes.* 



Fig. 345 represents a survival of the form of deposit in which the box 

 is supported by two posts from the village of Skidegate, Qaeen Char- 

 lotte Islands, the boards from post to post having the semblance of the 

 end of a huge box, in which the ashes or remains were formerly de- 

 posited. This is similar in significance to tbe one shown in Fig. 344, 

 being a survival of the semblance of a former custom. Wherever cre- 

 mation was practised in this regiou, it seems to have been the earlier 

 custom to deposit the ashes in boxes on columns. These latter must 

 however be distinguished from the strictly commemorative columns 

 erected to " glorify the dead." The carved columns, erected at the end 

 of the village, as in Plate in, stand somewhat between the two, having 

 the double purpose of "glorifying the dead" and serving as mortuary col- 

 umns, to symbolize the old and mark the new form of the interment 

 of the remains. While they do not in themselves serve as a sepulchre 

 or receptacle, they seem in a vague way to have had their origin in the 

 ancient custom of depositing the dead in boxes on or shelves in these 

 carved columns. The origin of the custom of cremation amongst the 

 northern tribes of this region seems traceable to the belief that a piece 

 of the flesh in the possession of an enemy gave him the power to work 

 evil to his spirit and to his kin. This belief in witchcraft is general 

 throughout the coast. Dunn gives a curious illustration of this amongst 

 the Kwakiutl. He says of his. dealings with them : 



This exasperated the Indians against me ; and they gave me the name of shloapes, 

 i. e., "stingy ;" and when near them, if I should spit, they would run and try to take 

 up the spittle in something; for, according, as they afterwards informed me, they 

 intended to give it to their doctor or magician; and he would charm my life away.t 



The bodies of warriors killed in battle were formerly cremated, the 

 head being severed from the body and preserved in a box, supported 

 by two poles over the box holding his ashes. This was the form of 

 sepulchre described by Dixon amongst the Yakutat, as previously 

 quoted in this chapter, the idea of cremation being to prevent an enemy 

 from mutilating the body. It is believed also amougst the Tlingit that 

 the souls or spirits of those whose bodies are cremated will be very 

 comfortable in the spirit world. Whatever may have been the origin 



*Lisiansky, Voyage, pp. 240, 241. t Dunn, Oregon, pp. 246-247. 



