A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians | Page 5

loud
lamentations and much weeping manifest a grief which is truly
commensurate with the intensity of Indian devotion and attachment.
While thus expressing before the near departed their grief at the sad
separation impending, the Indian women, or friendly braves, lose no
time in equipping him or her with the most ornate clothes and
ornaments that are available or in immediate possession. It is thus that
the departed Otoe is enrobed in death, in articles of his own selection
and by arrangements of his own taste and dictated by his own tongue. It
is customary for the dying Indian to dictate, ere his departure, the
propriety or impropriety of the accustomed sacrifices. In some cases
there is a double and in others no sacrifice at all. The Indian women
then prepare to cut away their hair; it is accomplished with scissors,
cutting close to the scalp at the side and behind.
The preparation of the dead for burial is conducted with great solemnity
and care. Bead-work, the most ornate, expensive blankets and ribbons
comprise the funeral shroud. The dead, being thus enrobed, is placed in
a recumbent posture at the most conspicuous part of the lodge and

viewed in rotation by the mourning relatives previously summoned by
a courier, all preserving uniformity in the piercing screams which
would seem to have been learned by rote.
An apparent service is then conducted. The aged men of the tribe,
arranged in a circle, chant a peculiar funeral dirge around one of their
number, keeping time upon a drum or some rude cooking-utensil.
At irregular intervals an aged relative will arise and dance excitedly
around the central person, vociferating, and with wild gesture,
tomahawk in hand, imprecate the evil spirit, which he drives to the land
where the sun goes down. The evil spirit being thus effectually
banished, the mourning gradually subsides, blending into succeeding
scenes of feasting and refreshment. The burial feast is in every respect
equal in richness to its accompanying ceremonies. All who assemble
are supplied with cooked venison, hog, buffalo, or beef, regular waiters
distributing alike hot cakes soaked in grease and coffee or water, as the
case may be.
Frequently during this stage of the ceremony the most aged Indian
present will sit in the central circle, and in a continuous and doleful
tone narrate the acts of valor in the life of the departed, enjoining
fortitude and bravery upon all sitting around as an essential
qualification for admittance to the land where the Great Spirit reigns.
When the burial feast is well-nigh completed, it is customary for the
surviving friends to present the bereaved family with useful articles of
domestic needs, such as calico in bolt, flannel cloth, robes, and not
unfrequently ponies or horses. After the conclusion of the ceremonies
at the lodge, the body is carefully placed in a wagon and, with an escort
of all friends, relatives, and acquaintances, conveyed to the grave
previously prepared by some near relation or friend. When a wagon is
used, the immediate relatives occupy it with the corpse, which is
propped in a semi-sitting posture; before the use of wagons among the
Otoes, it was necessary to bind the body of the deceased upon a horse
and then convey him to his last resting place among his friends. In past
days when buffalo were more available, and a tribal hunt was more
frequently indulged in, it is said that those dying on the way were

bound upon horses and thus frequently carried several hundred miles
for interment at the burial places of their friends.
At the graveyard of the Indians the ceremony partakes of a double
nature; upon the one hand it is sanguinary and cruel, and upon the other
blended with the deepest grief and most heartfelt sorrow. Before the
interment of the dead the chattels of the deceased are unloaded from the
wagons or unpacked from the backs of ponies and carefully arranged in
the vault-like tomb. The bottom, which is wider than the top (graves
here being dug like an inverted funnel), is spread with straw or grass
matting, woven generally by the Indian women of the tribe or some
near neighbor. The sides are then carefully hung with handsome shawls
or blankets, and trunks, with domestic articles, pottery, &c., of less
importance, are piled around in abundance. The sacrifices are next
inaugurated. A pony, first designated by the dying Indian, is led aside
and strangled by men hanging to either end of a rope. Sometimes, but
not always, a dog is likewise strangled, the heads of both animals being
subsequently laid upon the Indian's grave. The body, which is now
often placed in a plain coffin, is lowered into the grave, and if a coffin
is used the friends take their parting look at the deceased