ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS. 



351 



protect it from the rain or snow. They then 

 clear off the bushes and grass, for eight or ten 

 feet around the grave ; and every spring, the 

 ground is thus renewedly cleared, for several years 

 after. About the grave, they set up a few stakes 

 on which they hang strips of cloth, tobacco, &c. 

 While the ceremonies of interment are perform- 

 ing, the relatives and friends of the deceased, make 

 the most dismal moans and cries ; and, to convince 

 others of their grief, and, as they say, to ease their 

 wounded hearts, some of them cut the hair of 

 their heads short, or make incisions in their faces* 

 and arms, while others, to whom the deceased 

 was more dear, will seize an arrow, in an agony of 

 grief, and run it through the fleshy part of their 

 thighs. 



The Indians generally appear to be more af- 

 flicted with the loss of an infant, helpless child, 

 than of a person that has arrived to mature age ; 

 for the latter, they say, can provide for himself, 

 in the country whither he has gone, while the 

 former, is too young to depend upon himself. 



The men appear to be ashamed to manifest 

 their grief at the loss of any one, however dear 

 he might have been to them; but the women 

 give full vent to the feelings of nature. The fond 

 mother, when she looses a young child, will pull 

 out all the hair of her head ; cut her face, arms, 



