Apart from the willow biers may be seen circles of skulls, numbering from fifty to a hundred, each about nine inches from its neighbour, and with the face turned towards the centre. In this ghastly cordon room is made, and the newly fallen skull added thereto, and ever after regarded with the rest as an object of veneration, not only by those who can claim with it family acquaintance, but by the whole tribe. “Very frequently,” says Catlin, “the traveller may observe a wife, or maybe a mother, of this sad remnant of mortality sitting down by the side of the skull of its departed husband or child, talking to it in the most endearing tones, and even throwing herself down to embrace it, the while bewailing with loud and incessant cries; very often too they will cut and hack themselves with knives as a punishment for any offence they may have given their relative while alive.”
Among the Ojibbeways, as soon as the man is dead, they array him in his best clothes, and as soon as possible place him in a coffin. If this latter article is not available, he is wrapped in the best skins or blankets the tent furnishes. A hole about three feet deep is dug, and generally within twelve hours of his decease the man is buried, with his head towards the west. By the side of his body is placed his former hunting and war implements, such as his bow and arrow, tomahawk, gun, pipe and tobacco, knife, pouch, flint and steel, medicine-bag, kettle, trinkets, and other articles which he carried with him when going on a long journey. The grave is then covered, and on the top of it poles or sticks are placed lengthways, to the height of about two feet, over which birch bark or mats form a covering to secure the body from the rain. The relations or friends of the deceased then sit on the ground in a circle round the head of the grave, when the usual offering to the dead, consisting of meat, soup, or the fire-waters, is made. This is handed to the people present in bowls, a certain quantity being kept back for a burnt offering. While this is preparing at the head of the grave, the old man, or speaker for the occasion, makes a prayer to the soul of the departed, enumerating his good qualities, imploring the blessing of the dead that his spirit may intercede for them, that they may have plenty of game; he also exhorts his spirit to depart quietly from them. They believe that the soul partakes of a portion of the feast, and especially that which is consumed by fire. If the deceased was a husband, it is often the custom for the widow, after the burial is over, to spring or leap over the grave, and then run zigzag behind the trees, as if she were fleeing from some one. This is called running away from the spirit of her husband, that it may not haunt her. In the evening of the day on which the burial has taken place, when it begins to grow dark, the men fire off their guns through the hole left at the top of the wigwam. As soon as this firing ceases, the old women commence knocking and making such a rattling at the door as would frighten away any spirit that would dare to hover near. The next ceremony is to cut into narrow strips like ribbon, thin birch bark. These they fold into shapes, and hang round inside the wigwam, so that the least puff of wind will move them. With such scarecrows as these, what spirit would venture to disturb their slumbers? Lest this should not prove effectual, they will also frequently take a deer’s tail, and after burning or singeing off all the hair, will rub the necks or faces of the children before they lie down to sleep, thinking that the offensive smell will be another preventive to the spirit’s entrance. “I well remember,” says the Rev. Peter Jones, a Christianised Ojibbeway and missionary, “when I used to be daubed over with this disagreeable fumigation, and had great faith in it all. Thinking that the soul lingers about the body a long time before it takes its final departure, they use these means to hasten it away.
“I was present at the burial of an old pagan chief by the name of Odahmekoo, of Muncey Town. We had a coffin made for him, which was presented to his relatives; but before they placed the body in it, they bored several holes at the head, in order, as they supposed, to enable the soul to go in and out at pleasure.
“During the winter season, when the ground is frozen as hard as a rock two or three feet deep, finding it almost impossible to penetrate through the frost, having no suitable tools, they are obliged to wind up the corpse in skins and the bark of trees, and then hang it on the fork of a large tree, high enough to be beyond the reach of wolves, foxes, and dogs, that would soon devour it. Thus the body hangs till decomposition takes place, and the bones, falling to the ground, are afterwards gathered up and buried.
“Immediately after the decease of an Indian all the near relatives go into mourning, by blackening their faces with charcoal, and putting on the most ragged and filthy clothing they can find. These they wear for a year, which is the usual time of mourning for a husband or wife, father or mother.
“At the expiration of a year the widow or widower is allowed to marry again. Should this take place before the year expires, it is considered, not only a want of affection for the memory of the dead, but a great insult to the relations, who have a claim on the person during the days of the mourning. The first few days after the death of the relative are spent in retirement and fasting; during the whole of their mourning they make an offering of a portion of their daily food to the dead, and this they do by putting a part of it in the fire, which burns while they are eating. I have seen my poor countrymen make an offering of the fire-waters to the departed: they deem this very acceptable, on account of its igniting the moment it touches the fire. Occasionally they visit the grave of the dead, and there make a feast and an offering to the departed spirit: tobacco is never forgotten at these times. All the friends of the dead will for a long time wear leather strings tied round their wrists and ankles, for the purpose of reminding them of their deceased relative.”
It is a custom always observed by widows to tie up a bundle of clothes in the form of an infant, frequently ornamented with silver brooches. This she will lie with and carry about for twelve months, as a memorial of her departed husband. When the days of her mourning are ended, a feast is prepared by some of her relatives, at which she appears in her best attire. Having for the first time for a twelvemonth washed herself all over, she looks once more neat and clean.
The Shahonees bury their dead with everything belonging to them. The Comanches generally bury a warrior with his arms and his favourite horse; formerly his wives also shared the same fate, but this custom has disappeared. Whilst the Sioux put striking marks on their tombs that they may be easily distinguished, the Comanches cover them with grass and plants to keep them concealed. Among the tribes of the west the warriors are still sometimes buried on horseback, wrapped in their richest dress, with bow in hand, buckler on arm, the quiver full of arrows slung behind, the pipe and the medicine-bag hanging to the belt, and supplied with a provision of tobacco and dried meat sufficient for the voyage to the enchanted prairies.
The Assineboins, like several other tribes of the great American desert, never bury their dead, but suspend them by thongs of leather between the branches of the great trees, or expose them on scaffoldings sufficiently high to place the body out of reach of the voracious wild animals. The feet of the corpse are turned towards the rising sun; and when the scaffoldings fall through old age, the bones are collected and burned religiously within a circle formed of skulls. The sacred deposit is guarded, as among the Mandans, by medicine-trees or posts, from which amulets or medicine-bags are suspended.
On the death of a member of their tribe, the Potowatomies, the Ottawas, and several other people of the north, distribute all the things which belonged to the deceased to his friends. Some of them are Catholics, and these fix on the tomb a great pole, at the summit of which floats a banner ornamented with a black cross. Among these same tribes, when a married man or woman dies, the survivor pays the debt of the body by giving money, horses, and other presents to the relatives of the deceased. The Ottawas sacrifice a horse on the tomb of the dead; they strangle the animal by means of a noose, then cut off its tail and suspend it to stakes fixed on the tomb. The women of the Crows also pay the debt of the dead by making incisions deep in their own flesh. The Chippewas are in the habit of lighting large fires on the tombs of members of their family for several nights after the funeral.