Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/189

 Diary of Rev. George H. Gary 169 when we are sorry we have done wrong, and pray Him to forgive us, He will take away our bad heart and give us a good heart, and then we must do well and avoid everything that is wrong ; must always speak the truth ; never take anything that is not our own; a man must love his wife and have but one woman ; and many such suggestions adapted to their capacity; finally close by stating to them that if we are good we are all brethren and our Heavenly Father will bring all His good children to His great home in heaven, but if we are bad children, He will drive us away from His house where we shall be very miserable forever. This meeting was pleasing to me. Bros. Waller and Perkins took part in it. We passed the island where Bro. Perkins' little slave was buried. The Indians bury their dead on islands so that the wolves will be less likely to disturb the bodies of the dead. The boxes in which they deposit these bodies are about twelve feet square; these are family sepulchers, which are used by being kept in some sort of repair from generation to generation; when the bones are left by the departed flesh and the clothing which is put on from time to time by the sur- viving relatives, then they are brushed up into a heap in the corner of this sepulcher, and then there is more room for more dead bodies. The Indians think our way of burying the dead is very unfeeling ; we do not clothe the bodies sufficiently; we do not furnish them with suf- ficient supplies for the various emergencies of their future state &c &c. No one among them touches the dead body but the proper burying man ; no other one touches this island but he. Bro. Perkins employed him to go and get the living boy from this sepulcher; and the three blankets and shirt which were given for the ransom of this boy were taken out and put into this sepulcher for the deceased boy's comfort and convenience. Heathen- ism, how dark thou art! how unreasonable and absurd thou art ! Yea, how unfeeling and cruel thou art to bury