Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1885-04-11

arts which they have lost through contact
with the whites, and, from the unsparina
way in which nowadays they give their
best to their dead friends, we may argue
that de Bry and Laftau, and other
explorers, simply depicted what they
saw, and that the houses of the dead
were, among some tribes, really far more
sumptuOus than those of the living.
Here is an instance of the present-day
unsparingness in q poor broken tribe in
California. These Californians burn
their dead as do many of the Indians OF
the far west; and the scene at the chiefs
burning reminds one of the burials OF
the old Greek heroes. In his mouth
were placed two gold twenties,. and
smaller coins OH his breast and in hand
and ears. All his finery-feather
mantles, plumes, clothes, shell-money,
bows, arrows-was heaped upon him;
and as soon as the dirge and funeral
| dance were set going the Indian specta-
tors began to lose their heads. One
stripped off bran-new broadcloth coat
and flung it on the pyre, bowling
piteously. Another was just throwing
on pile OF blankets. when white man
offered him $40 for them jingling the
bright coins before his eyes. The red
man hurled him aside, and threw his
offering with the rest. Women kept
throwing all they had in the world
their gayest dresses, their shell neck
laces. Indeed, so furious got the excite
ment that some of them would them.
selves have leaped in had they not been
prevented. The idea was that the souls
| If the things thus burned went of
chariOted in the smoke-wreaths along
with the soul of the dead man. At this
funeral the white men who were looking
on calculated that at least $500 worth Of
goods were destroyed, and what
surprised them most was that the
Indians, at other times close bargainers,
wholly forgot their usual greed. "Why,
he'd have cleared s. if he'd sold me his
blankets" said the man who had made
the offer. II only did it to try him and
precious glad I was when 1 saw he was
too wild to snap at such fancy price.
Where they do not burn they are
equally lavish. DR.. Sternburg, of the
United States army, found in Kansas
among the Cheyennes, burial-case
raised some eight feet from the ground
on four notched uprights. Seeing that it
was carefully constructed, his "civilized"
instinct prompted him at once to send it
to the Army Medical museum at
Washington. where it was found to
consist OF box six feet long, three feet
high, and three feet deep, of white
willow branches neatly united, with
floor of buffalo thongs, and straps
fastened to four twelve-foot ironwood
poles, which had rested in the notched
uprights. Outside were two buffalo robes
of the largest size, and inside five more,
each bound round with a bright sas I,
were successfully removed. Then came
five blankets red, two blue, one
white; and nexta white and gray striped
sack, and inside that United States
infantry overcoat, like all the other
wrappings, nearly new. Then on a
pillow of rags, was the "medicine-bag" of
the dead baby-of course it was baby;
all those wrappings left only room for a
year-old child. The bag contained
parcel of red paint, some bits of deerskin
along with straps, buckles, and other
odds and ends. The inner wrappings
were three splendid robes, each about
four feet long, of buffalo calfskin, elabor
ately decorated with beadwork stripes
blue and white in the first, green and
yellow in the next, blue and red in the
innermost. The hoods, too, were richly
ornamented with beadwork, and all
round the robes little spherical brass
bells were hung with strings of beads.
Next was gray WOODEN shawl, then five
yards of blue cashmere, followed by six
of red, and then again by six of brown
calico, and in that last wrapping was the
babe, with beaver fur cap and long
wampum necklaces and strings of rare
shells, among them that, Haliotis from
the California gulf, 50 valued by the
tribes living east of the Rocky mountains.
The dress was a red tunic, with bead
work frock, leggings, red and black
stockings, deerskin moccasins with
beadwork, and over all red flannel
cloak. All the little creatures toys-a
china doll, vase, pair of mittens, ETC.
were placed in the cloak. Think ofthe
amount of selfdenial in giving up all
those blankets and all that mass of beads
and wampum work! The New Workers
are only acting like those who held the
land before them, when they spend such
fabulous sums as the'newspapers tell US
Cucy uO Oll OtucI
tribes, instead of plated willow boxes,
use regular wooden chests, wonderfully
carved, usually with a lid like gabled
roof and always with an opening in the
side through which food may be passed
in, so that the soul may eat the souls of
the good things provided by its friends.
Old travellers wondered at these collins
set up above ground; and the Spaniards
as little scrupulous as DR.. Sternberg
about violating burial places-found in
some of them deal of wealth. The
burial boxes Of tribe on the Taaomecn i
river, Oregon, are said to have furnished
handfulls of pearls to party of soldiers
that were exploring the coast.
The Chinese, we must remember, also
keep their collins above ground; and
ages ago, they used to be as reckless as
the red men in their offerings to the /
dead. The Scythians- probably also
belonging to the yellow seemed to |
us to have been the most lavish because
Of the quantity of gold found in their
tombs. But gold was common in the
Ural; and to Scythian king even the
treasures found in such tomb as Koul-
Oba, near Kertch, were not more
than all that calico, and those
Buffalo robes and blankets, were to poor