360 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



ludiau boxes, whicli were deposited in the dead house in rear of the former liouse of 

 the deceased. 



Although largo quantities of uuburned wood remains after a cremation, the Indians 

 ■will not use it, but will go miles for their fuel rather than act contrary to custom 

 founded on superstition. 



The tribes that novr do not practice cremation, such as the Haida, 

 Kaigani, and southern Tlingit, eoclose the corpse in a sitting posture 

 in a large covered box, similar to those ordinarily used, and stow it 

 away in the d?ad house, which is usually a shed or small house behind 

 the lodge of the deceased or at one end of the village. Some of these 

 dead houses contain three or four bodies. After the ceremony of de- 

 positing the box, the brother, or other near relative, gives a potlatch 

 and a feast to repay those who have contributed to the ceremony, 

 either in helping construct the box, or the dead house, or in carrying 

 the body. This practice is not very different where the body is interred 

 according to the rites of Christian burial or in imitation of it. The 

 mourning, feasting, and painting of the face is still generally practised 

 with any form of burial, save that directly under the supervision of the 

 missionaries. 



It is the present custom, however, amongst the Kaigani, Haida, and 

 southern Tlingit when a chief or very wealthy jjerson dies, to display 

 the body in state for awhile and then enclose it in a casket, which re- 

 mains in the house in which the deceased lived, the other occupants 

 moving out and finding quarters elsewhere. The casket is surrounded 

 by the boxes containing the ceremonial apparel of the deceased, his 

 household utensils, personal property, and tokens of wealth in general, 

 and thus left for several years, admission being given from time to 

 time to visitors to view the spectacle. Plate lxvit is a view of such a 

 disposition of the body of the famous chief Skowl, at Kasa-an village, 

 Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, from a photograph by the writer. 

 Plate Lxyiii, Fig. 353, is a view of chief Shakes lying in state at Fort 

 Wrangell, Alaska. 



The grandest feasts and ceremonies in this region are in honor of the 

 dead, and in celebration and commemoration of the prowess, good 

 birth, and wealth of the deceased. 



SHAMAN BURIAL, 



Dall, speaking of the customs at the death of a shaman, says: 



For the first night he remains lying in the corner where he died ; but on the fol- 

 lowing day he is removed to the opposite corner, and this is continued until the body 

 has visited each of the four corners of the house. All the inmates of the house fast 

 meanwhile. On the iifth day the body, dressed in the garb of his profession, is bound 

 to a board. Two ivory or bone wands, which the shaman used in his performances, 

 are placed, the one in the cartilage of the nose, and the other in the hair, which is tied 

 together. The head is covered with a piece of basket-work, and the body is carried 

 to its final resting place.* 



* Dai', Alaska, p. 426. 



