Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1886-03-25
A DIGGER INDIAN BURIAL.
AN IMPRESSIVE FUNERAL CEREMONY
SCENES At THE GRAVE.


a Graveyard ON u Hiilside-rho Di;eor
Anguish of . Mourner - Mobility Of
Manly Grief-Incantations of an cid
Priestcss-The Last Rites.
All my visits to the settlements, as Uell
as all my observations of the Indians on
the road to the town. jogging on their
starved ponies, or strOlling by the side OF
their heavily-loaded squaws, had served
to fix my impression of them as silent,
melancholy, and suspicious little handful
Of people, their few gutteral words so
ugly that there was no encouragement in
the sound to utter many of them, AMI
their experience of tho world so full of
betrayals and morose endurance was the
best weapon against more extended de-
ception. IL was, therefore, with a shock
of surprise when ! began to climb the
barren, stony, windswept hill where their
burial ground was, and the character Of
their mourning fully revealed itself 10
me, that l perceived what barbaric
abandonment of grief custom and feeling
united TO make them give way to on &C.
casions like the death Of one of their men.
More than fifty men, women and chill
dren were sitting upon the ground half
way up the hillside, wailing, crying, rock
ing their bodies and gabbling long SEN
fences, which they wonld hurricdly re-
commence as soon as finished, with "A long,
gasping sigh. Most of the young women
wore red handkerchiefs ON their heads,
many had children with them wrapped in
gaudy shawls. Upon a bowlder at n little
distance two children, s or 0years old,
n. n all shnI IL
elders with cynical curiosity. The old
squaws, with their gray hair cut short
and their blankets pinned awkwardly
about them, all trace Of sex battered from
their faces by exposure and hard work,
for the Digger has no compassion for age,
were pitiful objects in their senile grief.
THE ANGUISH OF A MoURNER.
Invent close to the grave. 1t was wide,
but Shallow, and two collins were exposed
to view. The dead man was to be buried
by the side Of his mother, who died two
years earlier. Tn icy were just putting in the
last Of his effects, a pickax, the head aud
handle separately. At the edge OF the
grave stood ,oung woman Of Tor s and
30 barefooted and lightly clad in thin
brown cotton gown. She would drag her
long, heavy black hair over her face in n
frenzy Of anguish, and then push il away,
moaning and showing the sharpened feat
ures and sunken cheeks of the consump-
tive. To my horror, for the action was
dreadfully suggestive of living burial, shs
leaped into the grave and flung herself
upon one Of the collins. a man followed
her and carefully arranged her dress
about her feet. The poor creature groaned.
and cried and made caresSing little noises
as she pressed her hands nervously about
the sides Of the head of the coffin, outlia-
ing its grim shape. At last one of the men
lifted her up and ont OF the grave, ex-
hausted and inert. She sank down 10y an
old man who sat with his back to the
grave. and lay for the rest of the ceremony
between his knees, with her head on his
breast, her wild hair nearly covering her
child, around whom the oil man kept one
arm.
Near that group sat young Indian Of
Is or 20, also relative of the dead, ap-
parently, as he was exempted from tn,
task of filling up the grave. in which all
the other men took part lie sat on the
fragment OF a rock in an attitude which
resumed itself the nobility of manly grief.
He was only Digger Indian, and dressed
in q laborer's suit of blue jean, but his
pose was worthy Of marble, and his full
black eye was somber with the intelligent
sadness no sculptor can render. The rest
of the company kept up their barbara;
wailing while the filling up of the grave
went on, the chief figure being an oil
woman in blue gown, bound under tho
breast with girdle of dried tule.
AN OLD PIIEsTEss' VACCINATIONS.
Loo. -, h..,. "a. r..
quent Illustrations OF water-as many Of
the others did, though the wind was raw
the old creature kept upa solemn, gro
tesque dance about The grave, waving and
wringing her hands by turns, and utter
ing lamentations, principally a sound like
the word "O-ah-hao!' with the accent AMI
IA sharp rising infection on the second
syllable. Another cry was Theoretically
like the English words 20 agony the IA
uttered like a shrek.
When tine old priestess had tired If these
inca1tations she sat down at the head OF
the grave lOosened her dress at the throat,
and rather gently beat her breast with her
open fingers. At this moment all tho
waillng and uproar was heard reproduced
at some distance. Looking across tho
canyon we saw on spur of the mountain
a smaller group in the contortions ct
grief. This was not an outpost to keep or
evil spirits, as at first supposed, but
recently bereaved family had taken this
period OF mourning to bewail their own
loss afresh.
When the new grave was filed up level
they made no mound over their dead
the poor creature who had thrown herself
upon the coffin painfully arose and began
to tread down the clods with her naked
feet. She ordered with gesture whero
each Of the last few shovelfuls Of earth
should be thrown, and, kneeling down,
raked the soil 10 kind Of smoothness
with her thin brown fingers. AT last all
was completed, and first those upon thu
outskirts OF the gathering, then Others,
and finally the relatives, filed slowly down
the bare hillside, the crying Of the other
mourners reaching the ear more and moro
family as we descended below the con-
Quoting current OF wind.-Lakeport (Cal)
Cor. San Francisco Chronicle.
The MONDAY Suns Dusky Ring.
For the last two years close observers Of
the sky have noticed that the MONDAY
sun has been surrounded by n corona of
dusky, copperish, or reddish light, as it
has bpeu yarinuslv Described tho pircla If