The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1893-05-24
MoJAvE FUNERAL RITES.
Grief and Appetite Go Hand In Hand At
These Ceremonies.

On the banks of the lower Colorado
among the gravel mesas and mesquite-
covered valleys, live the MojaVe Ind
ians, having their commercial head
quarters at The Needles, Cal, famed
as the hottest place in the United
States excepting Death valley, and
their seat of learning, supported by
the government at Fort Mojave. A. L.
In western Arizona, where snow and
ice are unknown, clothing is useless
except for ornament, and the mesquite
tree bears all the food needed to sus-
tain life, we find the Mojave Indians
to resemble in appearance and habits
the negroes of Central Africa except in
the particulars of curly hair and thick
lips, having the same scorn for the
restraints of clothing, and the same
passionate fondness for brilliant plu-
mage and gaudy cosmetics. Peculiar
are the customs of these benighted
people, but there is none more unique
than the ceremony connected with
their disposal of their dead.
An Indian woman died today at
noon, and we attended the funeral,
four of us. The Mojaves practice cre-
nation, and the cremating commences
body, as witness the fact that the
woman died at noon and was on the
funeral pile at fifteen minutes past.
Indeed, it is said that the mourners
are sometimes startled at seeing the
dead come to life again when the ire
| begins to grow fervent. Not many
hicos, as the white people are called.
are accorded the. privilege OF attend
tor
well with one of the wise men OF the
tribe, we were invited to be present.
| AS soon as we could swallow our din
ners we started for the place, and were
guided there by the wailings of the
friends of the departed, consisting OF
| every man, woman and child present
at the festivities. You can see the
reasona bleness of my calling it by
| such q name when you are told that
| the affair concludes by the killing and
eating of all the horses of the depart-
ed, and every one goes to his own hut
feeling that he has enjoyed himself
greatly.
The Moiaves believe in demonstrate
| ing their feelings through the agency
of the mouth and limbs, and this
woman, being much beloved, the
mourners were many and their grief
could be heard mile away. If ever
you have heard pack of coyotes howl
ing forth their misery in the middle OF
the night, when they howl most artis-
ticslly, you have this noise to dot.
Arriving at a place we found hole
dug in the ground about ten feet in
diameter and two feet deep, heaped
full of wood and surmounted by the
body of the deceased. This was burn
ing, and around it in picturesque atti-
tudes were all the friends trying to
outdo each other in exclamations OF
grief. The head doctor, for the Mo
javes have physicians, stood by the
, side of the genius who stirred the ire,
| giving directions for the most rapid
destruction of the body, which he had
no doubt, with great skill assisted ID
becoming a corpse. He thus carried
his functions step further than the
physicians in civilized life.
One old fellow, who seemed to be
the minister, was standing within thu
circle haranguing the assembly doubt
:, less on the many virtues of the de
parted, and when he seemed to make
an unusually good point the mourner'
manifested their appreciation by al
increase in the force Of their groans.
/ Finally the relatives and friends att
the horses that were the property o.
the deceased, and went home firmly
believing that the dead Woman's spiri
:. is roaming untroubled in sGhos
Mountain" just across the river. -SGa
Francisco Chronicle.