A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
History
A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians
Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites
The remains with their wrappings lay upon a matting similar to that
used by the Navajo and other Indians of the southern plains, and
upon a pillow of dirty rags, in which were folded a bag of red
paint, bits of antelope skin, bunches of straps, buckles, &c. The
three bead-work hooded cloaks were now removed, and then we
successively unwrapped a gray woolen double shawl, five yards of
blue cassimere, six yards of red calico, and six yards of brown
calico, and finally disclosed the remains of a child, probably about
a year old, in an advanced stage of decomposition. The cadaver had a
beaver-cap ornamented with disks of copper containing the bones of
the cranium, which had fallen apart. About the neck were long wampum
necklaces, with _Dentalium_, _Unionidæ_, and _Auriculæ_,
interspersed with beads. There were also strings of the pieces of
_Haliotis_ from the Gulf of California, so valued by the Indians on
this side of the Rocky Mountains. The body had been elaborately
dressed for burial, the costume consisting of a red-flannel cloak,
a red tunic, and frock-leggins adorned with bead-work, yarn
stockings of red and black worsted, and deer-skin beadwork
moccasins. With the remains were numerous trinkets, a porcelain
image, a China vase, strings of beads, several toys, a pair of
mittens, a fur collar, a pouch of the skin of _Putorius vison_, &c.
Another extremely interesting account of scaffold-burial, furnished by
Dr. L. S. Turner, United States Army, Fort Peck, Mont., and relating to
the Sioux, is here given entire, as it refers to certain curious
mourning observances which have prevailed to a great extent over the
entire globe:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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