Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/363

Rh respected, a canoe (previously rendered unserviceable) is often drawn up and deposited near the grave. The, trees used for the deposit of the dead are often quite close to the village, but when a tomb is placed upon the ground, it is generally on some rocky islet or insular rock, which may be farther away, but is still in sight from the village. Such islands become regular cemeteries. Graves in trees are generally festooned with blankets or streamers of cloth, and similar appendages are affixed to poles in the vicinity of graves on the ground. Roughly carved human figures in wood are also often added. These sometimes hold in their hands wooden models of the copper plates which are so much valued by these northern tribes of the coast. Similar models are also at times nailed up on posts near the graves. At Pā'-as (Blunden Harbor) the upper part of one of these coppers (but one of inferior value) was found broken in two and affixed at a grave in token of grief. The lower part was not found, and had probably been used before on some similar occasion. At Fort Rupert and Alert Bay, bodies are now frequently buried in the ground, owing to the influence of the whites. Such a grave is named tik-ī-ās.

After the body has been deposited in the grave, a fire is made near it, in which some food is burned, such as dried salmon, fat, dried clams, etc., and all the smaller articles belonging to the deceased are thrown into the fire at the same time. The canoe, house, and other larger effects are then taken possession of by the son, father, daughter, wife, or brother of the dead, generally in the order named The wife or husband of the deceased goes into special mourning for a period of one month among the Queen Charlotte Sound tribes, or for four months among the Kōs'-kī-mo. The survivor lives during this period separately in a very small hut, which is built behind the house, eating and drinking alone, and using for that purpose dishes not employed by other members of the tribe. The near relatives of the dead cut their hair short, or, if women, cut a small portion of it off. A widow marks her face with scratches, in token of mourning; among the Kōs'-kī-mo she cuts her face with a shell, and does not generally marry again for at least a year. In some cases, about a month after death, the men of the tribe collect in a house to sing a song which relates the deeds and virtues of the deceased. This is named sā'-luma or kwai'-um, the "crying-song." Children are sometimes, in the same way, mourned for by the women. When at Mel'-oopa ("Nawitti") in 1878, the first sound we heard at daybreak was the crying and lamentation of the women, the song being taken up first by one and then by another, in different parts of the village. This, it was ascertained, was in consequence of the death of a boy which had occurred some time before.

In my notes on the Haida people of the Queen Charlotte