858 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



and sang in a most dismal manner. In the intervals of mourning the 

 feasting took place, and it was then also that the slaves were sacrificed. 

 The nearest relative or leading man who gave the feast despatched the 

 slaves by a sharp blow on the head with a " slave-killer," a variety of 

 which instruments is shown in Plate XLVI. The most elaborate kinds 

 were carved from deer antlers, but the points were sometimes of copper 

 or stone. 



Usually the body of the deceased was borne to the pyre and burned 

 at the beginning or on the first day of the ceremonies, the feasting and 

 monriiiiig following that event. In any case, the bearers of the body 

 are the invited guests. The funeral pile is usually built just back of the 

 house of the deceased. The mourners range themselves around the 

 funeral pyre, their faces painted black, their hair cut short, and some- 

 times their heads covered with eagle's down. It was the early custom 

 amongst the Tlingit to disjoint the body before burning it. Sometimes 

 the pipe was passed around before the fire was lighted, which last was 

 doDe at a signal from the master of ceremonies. As the tire was lighted, 

 drums were beaten, and the mourners wailed and cried until the pyre 

 was consumed. The ashes and burnt bones were collected in an elabo- 

 rately carved wooden box, which was deposited in the mortuary houses, 

 or on the columns described. The relatives washed and repainted their 

 faces, presents were made to the guests who had assisted, and a feast 

 took place, terminating the ceremonies.* 



An anonymous writer in the American Naturalist thus describes a 

 Tlingit funeral which he witnessed : 



lu oue corner of the room we found the corpse, completely encased in blankets, 

 which in turn were enveloped by a large woven sea-grass mat, and tied up in such a 

 manner as to bring the knees nearly to the chin, and, thus enshrouded, it was placed 

 in a sitting posture. The house was about half tilled with Indians — men, women, 

 and children. 



On oue side of the room a young brave was busily engaged with a pair of scissors 

 in cutting off the long black hair of all the near relatives, male and female. This 

 seems to be one of the usual mourning customs among these Indians. After he had 

 completed this tonsorial duty, during which he had been frequently interrupted by 

 their sudden outbursts of grief, a procession of abont twenty Indian warriors, headed by 

 old An-a-hoots, the war chief of the tribe, filed through the small portal. Each carried 

 in his hand a long slender staff" made of a hard wood and carved all over with fantastic 

 figures, while bright-colored Hudson Bay blankets fell in not ungraceful folds from 

 their broad, square shoulders. These staves bore evidence of their great age by the 

 high polish which they possessed, as well as by their smoky color and pungent odor. The 

 warriors ranged themselves in line along one side of the house, facing the center, and 

 immediately began a lugubrious death chant, keeping time by raising their staves 

 about three inches from the floor and letting them drop together. This doleful air 

 was much more monotonous than musical. 



All this time the relatives of the deceased were rending the air with their lamenta- 



** Simpson, Journey, Vol. ii, p. 208 ; Dall, Alaska, p. 417 ; Portlock, Voyage, p. 290; 

 Frazer, Totemism, pp. 81 and 82, quoting Holeuberg, p. 324, and Krause, Die Tlinkit- 

 Indianer, p. 223. 



