A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians | Page 7

be poor should their
husbands die, and that then they will have to provide for their children
by their own exertions, do not care to have many children, and
infanticide, both before and after birth, prevails to a great extent. This is
not considered a crime, and old women of the tribe practice it. A widow
may marry again after a year's mourning for her first husband; but
having children no man will take her for a wife and thus burden himself
with her children. Widows generally cultivate a small piece of ground,
and friends and relatives (men) plow the ground for them.
Fig. 2, drawn from Captain Grossman's description by my friend Dr.
W.J. Hoffman, will convey a good idea of this mode of burial.

Stephen Powers[8] describes a similar mode of grave preparation
among the Yuki of California:
The Yuki bury their dead in a sitting posture. They dig a hole six feet
deep sometimes and at the bottom of it "_coyote_" under, making a
little recess in which the corpse is deposited.
The Comanches of Indian Territory (_Nem, we, or us, people_),
according to Dr. Fordyce Grinnell, of the Wichita Agency, Indian
Territory, go to the opposite extreme, so far as the protection of the
dead from the surrounding earth is concerned. The account as received
is given entire, as much to illustrate this point as others of interest.
When a Comanche is dying, while the death-rattle may yet be faintly
heard in the throat, and the natural warmth has not departed from the
body, the knees are strongly bent upon the chest, and the legs flexed
upon the thighs. The arms are also flexed upon each side of the chest,
and the head bent forward upon the knees. A lariat, or rope, is now used
to firmly bind the limbs and body in this position. A blanket is then
wrapped around the body, and this again tightly corded, so that the
appearance when ready for burial is that of an almost round and
compact body, very unlike the composed pall of his Wichita or Caddo
brother. The body is then taken and placed in a saddle upon a pony, in a
sitting posture; a squaw usually riding behind, though sometimes one
on either side of the horse, holds the body in position until the place of
burial is reached, when the corpse is literally tumbled into the
excavation selected for the purpose. The deceased is only accompanied
by two or three squaws, or enough to perform the little labor bestowed
upon the burial. The body is taken due west of the lodge or village of
the bereaved, and usually one of the deep washes or heads of cañons in
which the Comanche country abounds is selected, and the body thrown
in, without special reference to position. With this are deposited the
bows and arrows; these, however, are first broken. The saddle is also
placed in the grave, together with many of the personal valuables of the
departed. The body is then covered over with sticks and earth, and
sometimes stones are placed over the whole.
_Funeral ceremonies._--the best pony owned by the deceased is

brought to the grave and killed, that the departed may appear well
mounted and caparisoned among his fellows in the other world.
Formerly, if the deceased were a chief or man of consequence and had
large herds of ponies, many were killed, sometimes amounting to 200
or 300 head in number.
The Comanches illustrate the importance of providing a good pony for
the convoy of the deceased to the happy-grounds by the following story,
which is current among both Comanches and Wichitas:
"A few years since, an old Comanche died who had no relatives and
who was quite poor. Some of the tribe concluded that almost any kind
of a pony would serve to transport him to the next world. They
therefore killed at his grave an old, ill-conditioned, lop-eared horse. But
a few weeks after the burial of this friendless one, lo and behold he
returned, riding this same old worn-out horse, weary and hungry. He
first appeared at the Wichita camps, where he was well known, and
asked for something to eat, but his strange appearance, with sunken
eyes and hollow cheeks, filled with consternation all who saw him, and
they fled from his presence. Finally one bolder than the rest placed a
piece of meat on the end of a lodge-pole and extended it to him. He
soon appeared at his own camp, creating, if possible, even more dismay
than among the Wichitas, and this resulted in both Wichitas and
Comanches leaving their villages and moving en masse to a place on
Rush Creek, not far distant from the present site of Fort Sill.
"When the troubled spirit from the sunsetting