Soon after, all the remaining property which she possessed--her
clothing, needles, combs, beads, &c., besides some tobacco--was sewed
up with her in the dress she usually wore, or in which she died. A
new sled was then made for the deceased, and two of the best dogs in
the family were selected to bear away the corpse. Instead of carrying
the body out of the ordinary doorway, an opening was made through the
side of the hut sufficiently large for the body to pass and those
accompanying it. The relatives and friends followed the remains to
the place of the dead, two or three miles distant, upon some hill
side. There it remained untouched for five days. The face only of the
deceased was exposed. On the return of the family connections to the
hut, one of the dogs was killed. During the five days which intervened,
the husband forsook the hut altogether, and all other huts, and
wandered about from place to place, living in temporary exile from all
connection with his former home, or family and friends. And during this
time, also, food was carried to the dead body, and also placed outside
the hut, on the supposition that she would need it.
On the sixth day, the deceased was visited again by the relatives for
the purpose of disposing of what was left of her remains. The crows
and beasts of prey had nearly or quite completed the work of destroying
every vestige of the body. Thus, in a very short time, nothing remained
but here and there a bone mingled indiscriminately with others in the
place of the dead.
The company then returned to the hut, and another scene of wailing
and mourning ensued. During this last act, the hut was surrounded by
the relatives of the deceased; and all at once, at a given signal,
the whole company rose up, and pulled the hut down, and removed it to
another place. Before it was erected again, however, the second dog was
killed, and its blood sprinkled over the newly-selected spot.
With the change in the locality of the hut a new order of things took
place. The husband assumed his former relations to the family, and
ceremonies were at an end respecting the deceased.
From what could be learned from the natives, they supposed that, in
leaving the face of the deceased uncovered, the crows would pick out
her eyes, and then she would be unable to find her way back to the
hut. The opening made in the side of the hut, through which to carry
the corpse, was another superstitious idea. They believed she would
not enter the hut again, if she was not carried out by the door. The
removal of the hut to a new place was in accordance with their notions
that she would be unable to find it again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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