THROUGH WONDERLAND. 
71 
time is set for the cremation or for the festivities; this depends altogether 
upon the magnitude of the preparations. Poor people who are unable 
to defray the cost of such ceremonies, take their dead to some distant 
cove or bay, and burn them without any display. When the guests have assem¬ 
bled and the pyre has been erected, the corpse is carried out of the village by 
invited guests, and placed upon the fagots. The pyre is then ignited in the 
presence of the relatives; but these latter take no active part, confining them¬ 
selves to crying, weeping and howling. On such occasions many burn their 
hair, placing the head in the flames; others cut the hair short, and smear 
the face with the ashes of the deceased. When the cremation of the body has 
been accomplished, the guests return to the dwelling of the deceased, and seat 
themselves with the widow, who belongs to their clan, around the walls of the 
hut; the relatives of the deceased then appear with hair burned and cropped, 
faces blackened and disfigured, and place themselves within the circle of guests, 
sadly leaning upon sticks with bowed heads, and then begin their funeral 
dirges with weeping and howling. The guests take up the song when the rel¬ 
atives are exhausted, and thus the howling is kept up for four nights in succes¬ 
sion, with only a brief interruption for refreshment. During this period of 
mourning, if the deceased had been a chief, or wealthy, the relatives formerly 
killed one or two slaves, according to the rank of the dead, in order to give him 
service in the other world. At the end of the period of mourning, or on the 
fourth day following the cremation, the relatives wash their blackened faces and 
paint them with gay colors, at the same time making presents to all the guests, 
chiefly to those who assisted in burning the corpse. Then the guests are 
feasted again, and the ceremony is at an end. The heir of the deceased is his 
sister’s son, or, if he has no such relative, a younger brother. The heir was 
compelled to marry the widow.” 
While I was at Chilkat the chief of the Crow clan was cremated with 
most savage ceremonials, no doubt well worth seeing, to which I was invited; 
but my preparations for my expedition kept me from accepting the invitation. 
Leaving Killisnoo, we cross Chatham Strait almost at right angles to its 
course (or due west), here about ten miles wide, and enter Peril Straits, about 
thirty-five miles long. They sweep boldly to the north in a great arc, and, like 
all winding and rapidly and alternately widening and narrowing of the inland 
channels, they are extremely picturesque, more from the contrast of different 
scenes so swiftly changed before one’s eyes, than from anything radically new 
so presented. The old Russian name for them was Paboogni (meaning “perni¬ 
cious”) Strait, and they got this title rather from an incident of appetite than 
bad navigation. In the latter part of last century the Russians used to import 
the poor Aleuts of the Aleutian Islands, far to the westward, as mercenaries to 
fight their battles for them against the T’linkit Indians of this region ; and, 
while encamped here, they partook of a large number of mussels, which proved 
poisonous, killing some, and putting many on the sick list for that particular 
campaign. In some of the very contracted places the tides run with great 
