Los Angeles herald., 1891-10-25

cueekS, yeI All Win tnelr mouths
wreathed in smiles that would indicate
the rarest enjoyment. These mourners
were ranged in circle around the body,
which was covered with coarse piece
of canvas. InoTdinate curiosity over
came all feelings of delicacy. and |
edged through this weeping guard Of
honor and lifted the rude pail which
covered the face Of the dead. Was it
poetic justice? Or, rather, was it the
irony of fate? The face 1 looked upon
was that of our guide on the previous
excursion.
Charley had at last piloted me to
cremation.
The preparations for the final scene
were few and simple. Choosing a spot
where there was a slight natural hollow,
few of the Indians scraped with hoes
little trench about eight feet long by
four wide, and possibly fourteen inches
deep. Into this trench they rolled two
heavy cottonwood logs, surrounding
them with smaller poles of willow, mes
quit and ironwood, making thus
funeral pyre nearly two feet higher
than the natural level of the
ground. This completed, the body was
tightly wrapped in the coarse canvas
pail, and placed upon the pile. So rapid
had been these preparations and so
little time had been lost in their exc
cution that rigor nOrtis was not yet pres
ent.
By this time the family of the dead
brave had appeared-his squaw, two
sons and one daughter. With them
they brought all the earthly possessions
of their lord and master. ! said they
brought all his possessions. Had there
been an adjective in the English
language to express quantity greater
than the sum total l would have usedit.
They brought every article which the
deceased possessed at the time of his
demise. These, after the body had been
laid upon the pile, were placed over
and around the corpse. Nor was
this all. Friends brought corn,
-four, mesquit and screw beans, beads,
red calico and yards of uncut, broad ban
danas. These were added to the pile.
Then from out the thicket came
a procession of young bucks, each carry
ing a large armful of dried boughs OF
trees and dead underground. Adding
his burden to the rapidly growing pyre,
each passed on and took his place upon
the outer circle, and when the last one
had deposited his load there stood before
us a mass of wood symmetrically built,
fully eight feet high.
There was then solemn pause; the
mourners ceased their lamentations,
and those of the Indians who we're
merely spectators assumed an attitude
of reverence. while before US stood, ap-
parently just vomited from the bowels
of the earth, fantastically garbed and
painted medicine man, bearing in both
! hands a burning torch. This, with
weird incantations, he applied to the
base of the pyre, walking slowly around,
until on completing the circle the whole
mass was a solid column of flame.
Throwing the burning brand as his con-
tribution into the now seething pile, he
stepped backward into the crowd, which
closed around him, and he was coon lost
to view in as mysterious manner as he
had before appeared.
His disappearance was the signal for
the renewal of the exertions of the criers.
They lifted their eyes, threw back their
heads and emitted continuous wall
that would have been almost ludicrous
were it not for the actual surroundings.
Higher scared the flames and fercer
burned the pile, vet still they stood their
ground, and the heat was intense enough
to cause acute suffering to those SO near
it, even if there were no incentives to
real grief
1t was not long before the flames died
out, and the over-dried fcel appeared
from the side like a solid mass of live
Goals. Such it was in fact; but standing
as l did upon slight elevation a few
yards from the foot OF the pile, each log
and pole retained its original shape, and
the body was distinctly visible. 1t was
sickening sight. The body was that of
robust man, suddenly killed, not yet
an hour dead, and not particle wasted
or desiccated. When l was fret able to
see into the burning mass his feet had
been consumed entirely, and little by
little could see the stumps shortening
and dropping away as the heat cooked
them to crisp, charred them and then
reduced them to ashes. This process
was wonderfully rapid, for dried mes
quit and ironwood make an intense heat !;
and it was scarce half an hour before
the bank OF Goals was level with the
ground.
Then one by one the spectators with
drew, until none were left but the
widow and the volunteer mourners.
These latter formed semi-circle around
buO WOllal11 ACdfAh6 liCA DCbWCOA
and the trench in which lay all that was
left of her once absolute master. But
her duty to him was not yet done.
There still remained a solemn obi
cation to be performed. All that was
his had been consumed with him.
She had been his, she vet remained.
One by one she took off her strings of
beads and cast them on the glowing
Goals. Off came the bright scarlet calico
that served as cape, and tapila; out
came the beads from her ears and nose.
All these were burned, and she stood
there clothed only in the bark skirt
which forms a Yuma squaw's most sim
pie and primitive garb.
But yet another sacrifice remained.
With knife she half cut, half tore her
hair close to the skull, and as it, too,
was reduced to dust she turned and
walked away from all that had made up
her life before; went out to commence
again from the very bottom round.
Why not? Her master was "ka-vark"
dead, forgotten.
Telepathy Like Electricity.
1t was at first seemingly a slight thing
that straw or other light body is at