The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-11-16

sea ny NOahuAiius-Ahui""S
 Pat Bodies of Dead in Caves-Tribes
 That Cremate.
 Whatever partakes of the mysterious 1 appeals to the mind of the Indian. Su- erstiti0us by nature and education and imagina tion to an extreme, all that is unknown and unfathOmed is associated with the miraculous and supernatural and he lives in an atmosphere Of mys- | ticism. Death is to him circumstance of the highest degree of mystery says the Los Angeles Times, and the ceTe- monies attending the funeral and bur ial are, therefore, elaborate and in many eases imposing
 The services over the dead vary greatly with different tribes and the methods Of lisposing of the bodies are many. Inhumation is, perhaps, the most common method of putting away -the dead, but even here there is va riety of customs. Some bury the dead in a sitting posture. Others double the body together and bind it with cords. 1 Still others stand the body upright, and in other cases the corpse is given a re- 1 cumbent position. Several of the tribes of the Southwest practice cremation; some dispose of their dead by placing the bodies upon elevated platforms; others entomb them in stone cysts, | caves, huts or other buildings, while some of the coast tribes sink the bod l ies in the waters of the ocean.
 The Pima Indians bury their dead ] 5so &oI aftnr death as possible. The burial generally takes place in the night time. The body IS prepared for the grave by being tied double with ropes passed under the knees and around the neck. When the E~medicine man of the tribe pronOunces death inevitable, the grave is prepared. This is perfectly round hole, four or five feet deep, just large enough to re-
 ceive the body. It often happens that the medicine man makes a mistake in the
 diagnosis of the case and the patient
 recovers. His grave is then left un-
 filled till such time as he is ready tc
 occupy it. Should other members oi
 the tribe die first, new graves are pre-
 pared for them, the other being left tt
 yawn till it gets the one for whom i
 was made. It therefore happens tha nearly every Pima cemetery contains
 several open graves.
 The burial is accompanied by chant
 ing by the mourners, words laudator!
 to the departed being improvised. Th'
 grave is filled while the weird song , are being sung and a pole fence or GOV
 ering is then constructed to protect tn
 grave from the depredations of coyote or other wild animals. The immediat relatives of the departed cut their hat as a sign of their mourning, and the, cease their occupations several weeks Immediately after the services at tn
 grave the house and personal effects o ) the departed are burned and his or he B cattle and horses are slaughtered an } cooked. A great feast is then made i which all members of the tribe in tn l vicinity take part. } The Navaios have a horror of deatf
 and will not approach a corpse save ( '. necessity. When death occurs in a dWe = ing it is immediately abandoned, and a l. soon as practicable new home
 built, In the meantime the survivin
 members of the household camp out ( o take refuge with other members of tn
 
 :. tribe.
 Sometimes the house where the deat a takes place is made to serve as a tom for the dead, the doorway being file
 with sticks and mud. It is more usua
 however, for the body to be buried
 a grave prepared for 1t, the reIlalf Ie being conveyed to the grave the ne'
 day after death by two perfectly nake S. Indians who, after the funeral, purii h themselves before resuming their al ts parel.
 IS The body is followed by long pr US cession of friends and relatives WI m march about the grave chanting sont .y and who. upon departing, deposit eat le upon the grave some article which u re departed will need in making his Jou n. nev to the lower world-the location r. the Navajo spirit land.
 The Hopi Indians have one buri
 custom for adults and another f children. They believe that the spiri
 of the latter return to their mothe
 and that they are born again. The
 therefore, dispose of the bodies of u T vo,Ing by, putting them in the cleftS u the rocks in the mesa, in any conver
 ent place, filling the crevices wi .n sticks. stones and mud. The bodies
 adults are laid in graves at the flo
 of the mesa After being careful
 dressed and prepared for long journ .e, A. prayer offering is laid with the bot
 to which is attached a long string, al or the body is then covered and pile ba stones laid on the grave. The strir s- which is left projecting from TIT grave, is then laid in long tren ,a- running due west from the cairn. es It is the belief of the Hopis that t
 spfrit of the departed, which is thoug Ire to be asleep with the body in the gray ou awakes at the expiration of the four UT day, when it is supposed to follow t
 string up out of the grave and alo mt the trench, when, having been start 'es in the right direction, it continues n- its westward way till it comes to in Grand Canon, in the depths of whi of they believe to be the house for to dead, to which they have given
 name of "Maski."
 he The Apaches put their dead away De the clefts of the rocks, in shall ln- graves, and, in the case of children, 'rK the tree tops frequently They chs
 the virtues of the departed at the ti rec of the burial, and the immedi; me friends of the deceased give tfemsel7