Fig. 731.—Held a commemoration of the dead. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1826-’27. The ceremonial pipe-stem and the skull indicate the mortuary practice, which is further explained by the next figure.
Fig. 732.—Ossuary ceremonial. Dakota.
Fig. 732.—A white man made medicine over the skull of Crazy-Horse’s brother. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1852-’53. He holds a pipe-stem in his hand. This figure refers to the custom of gathering periodically the bones of the dead that have been placed on scaffolds and burying them. It appears that a white man made himself conspicuous by conducting the ceremonies on the occasion noted.
Lewis and Clarke (c) mention the Chilluckittequaws, a division of the Chinooks of the Columbia river, as having for burial purposes vaults made of pine or cedar boards, closely connected, about 8 feet square and 6 in height. The walls as well as the door were decorated with strange figures cut and painted on them; besides these there were several wooden images of men, some of them so old and decayed as to have almost lost their shape, which were all placed against the sides of the vaults. These images do not appear to be at all the objects of adoration, but were probably intended as resemblances of those whose decease they indicate.
Fig. 733.—Kalosh graves.
Whymper (a) reports that the Kalosh Indians of Alaska construct grave boxes or tombs which contain only the ashes of the dead. These people invariably burn the deceased. On one of the boxes he saw a number of faces painted, long tresses of human hair depending therefrom. Each head represented a victim of the deceased man’s ferocity. Thus the pictures are not likenesses or totemic marks of the cremated Kalosh, but of enemies whom he had killed, being in the nature of trophies or proofs of valor. Fig. 733 is a reproduction of the illustration.
Dall (c) says of the Yukon Indians:
Some wore hoops of birch wood around the neck and wrists, with various patterns and figures cut on them. These were said to be emblems of mourning for the dead.