An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians — John Shaqi
An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
History
An Introduction to the mortuary customs of the North American Indians
Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites
"Lastly, in comparatively modern times, probably within a few
centuries, and up to the historic period (1740), another mode was
adopted for the wealthy, popular, or more distinguished class. The
bodies were eviscerated, cleansed from fatty matters in running water,
dried, and usually placed in suitable cases in wrappings of fur and
fine grass matting The body was usually doubled up into the smallest
compass, and the mummy case, especially in the case of children, was
usually suspended (so as not to touch the ground) in some convenient
rock shelter. Sometimes, however, the prepared body was placed in a
lifelike position, dressed and armed. They were placed as if engaged
in some congenial occupation, such as hunting, fishing, sewing, etc.
With them were also placed effigies of the animals they were pursuing,
while the hunter was dressed in his wooden armor and provided with an
enormous mask, all ornamented with feathers and a countless variety of
wooden pendants, colored in gay patterns. All the carvings were of
wood, the weapons even were only fac-similes in wood of the original
articles. Among the articles represented were drums, rattles, dishes,
weapons, effigies of men, birds, fish, and animals, wooden armor of
rods or scales of wood, and remarkable masks, so arranged that the
wearer when erect could only see the ground at his feet. These were
worn at their religious dances from an idea that a spirit which was
supposed to animate a temporary idol was fatal to whoever might look
upon it while so occupied. An extension of the same idea led to the
masking of those who had gone into the land of spirits.
"The practice of preserving the bodies of those belonging to the
whaling class--a custom peculiar to the Kadiak Innuit--has erroneously
been confounded with the one now described. The latter included women
as well as men, and all those whom the living desired particularly to
honor. The whalers, however, only preserved the bodies of males, and
they were not associated with the paraphernalia of those I have
described. Indeed, the observations I have been able to make show the
bodies of the whalers to have been preserved with stone weapons and
actual utensils instead of effigies, and with the meanest apparel, and
no carvings of consequence. These details, and those of many other
customs and usages of which the shell heaps bear no testimony ... do
not come within my line."
Martin Sauer, secretary to Billings' Expedition [Footnote: Billings'
Exped. 1802, p. 167.] in 1802, speaks of the Aleutian Islanders
embalming their dead, as follows:
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