Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United StatesThomas, Cyrus
History
Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of the United States
Thomas, Cyrus
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites; Mounds -- United States; Wyandot Indians
The other soul is attached to the body; it marks the corpse, as it were,
and remains in the grave after the feast, never to leave it, "si ce
n'est que quelqu'un l'enfante de rechef." He mentioned to me, as a proof
of this metempsychosis, the perfect resemblance which some persons bear
to others who are deceased. Here is a grand philosophy. This is why they
call the bones of the dead _Atisken_, "the souls."
A day or two before departing for the feast they carried all these
bodies into one of the largest cabins of the village, where some of them
were attached to the poles of the cabin, and others laid around it, and
the captain entertained and made a grand feast in the name of the
deceased captain, whose name he bore. I was present at this "feast of
spirits," and observed four things in particular: First, that the
offerings which were given for the feast by the friends, and which
consisted of robes, necklaces of shell beads, and kettles, were hung on
poles extending the whole length of the cabin from one side to the
other. Second, the captain sang the song of the dead captain, according
to the desire he had expressed before his death, that it should be sung
on this occasion. Third, all the guests had the privilege of dividing
among themselves all the good things they had brought, and even of
carrying them home, contrary to the custom at ordinary feasts. Lastly,
at the close of the feast, as a compliment to him who had entertained
them, they imitated as they sang the cry of the spirits, and left the
cabin crying _haéé haé_.
The master of the feast, and even _Anenkhiondic_, captain-general of all
the country, sent to invite us several times with much solicitation. You
would have thought that the feast could not be a success without us. I
sent two of our fathers several days beforehand to see the preparations
and to learn exactly the day of the feast. _Anenkhiondic_ received them
very kindly, and on their departure conducted them himself a quarter of
a league from there to where the grave was dug, and showed them with
much display of emotion all the arrangements, &c., of the feast.
This feast was to have taken place on the Saturday of Pentecost, but
some affairs which came up unexpectedly, and the uncertainty of the
weather, caused it to be put off until Monday.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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