The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-02-19
An Interesting, Though Startling Cere-
mony-A Cemetery.

An Interesting, Though Startling Cere-
mOny-A Cemetery.
We found the house of mourning a
few doors further on, and heard the
sound of the beating stats of the MOURN
ors as they kept time to their mourn
full singing. We opened the door and
entered. The room had been 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 fifty
Indians, men, women and children, were
seated around in the space between tho
fire and the counter or platform that
runs all around the room, clad in their
best blankets and preserving a solemn
decorum. The covers had been taken
from the four gayly painted pillars or
talent posts that stood at the corners Of
the central square in the room.
The dead Indian sat upon the floor as
If alive, was covered with a blanket, eX-
cept his head, which wore a crown, and
near by stood his mask and some other
fixtures. His face was painted with red,
and there was nothing CHASTITY or death
like in his look. We remained for sOmo
time, and were kindly treated. | was
told that the singing, shaking of rattles,
and beating of sticks on the floor con-
tinues all night, and that when the timo
comes for cremating, the body is usually
taken out through the opening in tho
roOf-never through the front dOor-and
carried to the funeral pile.
Although we were in attendance next
day at 10 o'clock, we were too late to
see the initial proceedings, for we met
no mo hair OF Is
turning from the fire, and when wo
reached it, beyond the ranch on tho
beach, the body was nearly consumed.
A pile of wood, large sticks four or five
feet long, had been laid up, corn-cob-
house-wise, and a smaller pile put in
side, on which the body, wrapped in its
blanket, was laid Logs were then
added above the body, crossing others at
the corners thus produced, and few
Indians in attendance used long poles to
keep the burning sticks in place; somc
women were seated in the grass not far
away. There was no odor, and complete
decorum and decency so far as behavior
was concerned.
Still, believe, some of the mission
aries combat the cremating custom,
which 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 small
square wooden house, the four sides of
the roof running up to peak; these toy
houses, six to eight feet high, are gayly
painted, and present a really pictur
csque appearance. 1 tried one day to
make my way through an old part of
their cemetery, but found myself in q
regular jungle of brush and under
growth and could make no Roadway.
The old dead houses were falling into de-
cay, and everything inside them had
been stolen or 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 croaked on all
sides-it was almost dismal and funereal.
-[Sitka Cor American Register.