Cremation is the Thlinkit’s favorite mode of disposing of his dead. The bodies of slaves and “witches” are disposed of with great secrecy. They are not considered worth burial, and are sometimes cast into the sea, but water burial is infrequent. The bodies of chiefs lie in state several days; the people observe certain rites; then the body is cremated and the ashes are encased in the base of a totem erected to his memory. Shamans (doctors) are never cremated. After lying in state four days, one day in each corner of the cabin, the body is taken out of the house through the smokestack, or some opening other than the door, and conveyed some distance to a deadhouse built for this particular occupant. There in its last resting-place the body is seated in an upright position. The paraphernalia of his rank and office, some blankets and household effects to add to his comfort in the spirit-land, are entombed with the remains. Another occasion for indulging in the potlatch is when some one is desirous of securing extraordinary influence in his tribe, generally a chief seeking to establish superior position or popularity over some rival. Natives have been known to save their means for years, augmenting them by industry and self-denial, in order finally to give a grand and unequaled feast of this character. When the time arrives not only are all the host’s own tribe invited, but those of the next nearest tribes not akin to his own. Such a festival often lasts for a whole week, until the last blanket of the giver is sacrificed. These strange festivals, we were told, are fast passing into disuse, at least among those tribes brought most in contact with the whites, though on a smaller scale they do still exist all over the southern region of Alaska.