Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1885-12-31
ALASKAN CREMATION.
An Interesting. Though Some what Start.
ling, Ceremony.

An Interesting. Though Some what START.
ling, Ceremony.
We found the house of mourning Q
few doors further on, and heard the
sound Of the beating staff of the mourn
ers as they kept time to their mournful
singing. We opened the door and en-
tered. The room had Leen put in or.
der for the occasion and hung with
draperies, the end opposite the door,
where the dead man was set up, being
hung with the American flag. About
ff.y Indians, men, women and chill
iren. were seated around in the space
between the fire and the counter or
platform that runs all around the
room, clad in their best blankets and
preserving solemn decorum. The
covers had been taken from the four
gaily painted pillars or talem posts
that stood at the corners of the central
square in the room. The dead Indian,
set up on the floor as if alive, was COW
cred with blanket, except his head,
which wore crown, and near
by stood his mask and some
other fixtures. His face was
painted with red, and there
was nothing ghastly OIL deathlikc in its
look. We remained for some time.
and were kindly treated. was told
that the singing. shaking of rattles and
beating of long sticks on the floor con-
tinues all night, and that when the
time comes for cremating the body is
usually taken out through the opening
in the roOf-never through the front
door-and carried to the funeral pile.
Although we were in attendance next
morning at ten o'clock we were too late
to see the initial proceedings, for VIC
met the mourners with their long sticks
returning from the fire, and when W.
reached it, beyond the rancho on the
beach, the body was nearly consuLed.
A pile of wood, large sticks four II five
feet long. had been laid up, co:n-cob-
hOuse-wise, and a smaller pile put in
side, on which the body, WRAP ped in
its blanket, was laid. Logs weje then
added, above the body. crossing others
at the corners and lighted. Aver great
neat was Thus produced, and Il few Inc
dams in attendance used long poles
to keep the burning sticks in place;
some women were seated in the
grass not far away. There was no
Odor, and complete dccorum and de-
cency so far as behavior was concernt d.
Still, l believe, some combat the crc-
mating custom, which l think worthy
of perpetuation. After the body is
burnt, the ashes are gathered and put
in box or trunk, and deposited with
the personal possessions in the tomb,
which is erected over a spot in their
cemetery, and consists of a small,
square wooden house, the four sides
of the roof running up to 4 peak;
these toy houses, six to eight feet
high, are gaily painted and present
really picturesque appearance. l
tried one day to make my way through
an old part of the cemetery, but /
found myself in a regular jungle of
bushes and underground. and could
make no Roadway. The old dead
houses were falling into decay. and
everything inside them had been stolen
or had persisted, and grass and weeds
grew up inside almost to the house
roofs. The canoes of the dead, that
had been hauled up by the houses, had
also rotted; ravens croakcd on all
sidcs-it was almost dismal and
funercal.-Sitka (Alaska) Cor. Amerj-
can ReQister.